Scroll 10 { Headstrong }

"Your Honor, the defense would like to call a witness to the stand."

'There was a witness?' Feather thought to herself in confusion.

"Defense calls Bunko Kawaya to the stand."

"Who? Bunko.... Kawaya...?" Feather was getting more and more confused. She wasn't the only one. From the looks of it, the prosecutor looked was at a lost for words too.

'Tock, tock, tock...'

The utters grew as an elderly woman, her gray locks twisted up into a neat bun made her way slowly to the stand with the aid of her wooden walking stick.

'Tock, tock, tock...' her walking stick knocked against the ground loudly.

"I didn't really plan to bring her out at all..." I explained. "Because I was afraid Mr. Crappy Prosecutor might start complaining again. But I guess I'll just have to make the effort to ignore his annoying rants."

"C... Crappy Prosecutor?" the man half-yelled, his left eye twitching in anger.

"Your Honor," I said loudly, facing the old bearded man. "Before I arrived in the court, I was wrapping up investigations when I coincidentally bumped into this woman you see here. This person has claimed that she has seen the murdering take place with her very own eyes. Please allow her to give her testimony on what she saw."

"Please do." The judge pushed on, giving permission.

"Ms Kawaya? This is the part where you tell us about what you saw. Please start anytime." I told the elderly woman.

"O-oh, am I suppose to start? Now? Oh, alright." The old lady muttered as if she was talking to herself. "Hmmm... Now what did I see..... Oh, yes, right! It was about 7-something in the evening and I was sitting down in my trusty old rocking chair watching the news... you know, they were talking about that fella' who went around killing everybody... what was he called? Kila? Kiya? Oh, oh. Right. KIRA!" she snapped her fingers, feeling pleased that she managed to remember.

The judge hammered down onto his table twice, stopping Bunko from talking.

"It would be better if you went straight to the point, Ms Kawaya." the judge said in a firm voice, trying to be patient.

"Yes, yes. I'm getting to it! Whose testimony is it, anyway? It's mine, isn't it? So you should just hush up and listen closely, sonny!" the old lady chided and the judge blinked.

"Sonny...?"

"Now, now... where was I... see what you made me do! I forgot where I left off!"

"Well, I'm Sorr--"

"Oh, yes! I was watching the news, wasn't I? About Kiya.... no, wait... Kila?"

".... Lady Hope..." Feather whispered to me. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea.... she's a bit.... you know... 'off her rocker'." She made a worried face.

"No, this is fine." I told her, waving her off.

"Yeah, But--"

"Hey you!" Bunko suddenly snapped at Feather. She jumped and looked at Bunko who was squinting her eyes at her in a very displeased way. "You young whippersnappers... you should learn some manners and listen to your elders when they talk!"

"S-s-sorry." Feather stammered, bowing her head.

"Please continue, Ms Kawaya." I said.

"Don't mind if I do. Anyway... like I was saying... it was a commercial so I was kind of zoning out, watching for the news to switch back on. That's when I heard yelling. It was coming from right next door my apartment. My curiosity got the better of me, so I went over to the window and peeked outside. I looked closely at the window of my neighbors and saw.... dark figures. The curtain was drawn but I could see them clearly--"

"I OBJECT!"

Oh, good. I was wondering when he was going to open his big mouth again.

"Your honor! This is ridiculous! How can this be a proper eye witness if she only saw FIGURES of everyone! And taking her age into consideration, I strong suggest that this isn't such a good ide--"

"You calling me old, sonny?!" Bunko screamed at the prosecutor. "I'm only 69 and a half!! Still young and as strong as a bull!!"

"Terrifying like one too." I heard Feather utter under her breath and I smirked slightly.

"Your Honor, it's true that Ms Kawaya only did see figures, but she did she something. An eye-witness is an eye-witness even if she didn't see the whole thing in a picture- perfect view. I would like to request permission for her to continue her testimony. Also, regarding Ms Kawaya's eyesight, I have checked with her personal doctor and can safely ensure you that it's perfectly fine."

"Hmmm..." The judge closed his eyes in thought, rubbing his chin. He thought about his decision for a few seconds before replying. "Alright. Objection overruled."

I heard the silver-haired man emit a low growl. He was now glaring at me with his sharp green eyes filled with hatred. I merely ignored his existence and glanced down at my nails unconcernedly.

"Okay, now, nobody stop me this time. I'm getting to the good part." Bunko said, getting more and more impatient. She cleared her throat before speaking. "I saw not two but three figure in the Shiritaka's apartment that night. At first, I thought it was only two, one of them a male and the second one a female. The male was yelling loudly at the female... couldn't catch what he was saying, but he sounded really angry. Then, suddenly, the third figure, another female, but this time she seemed to have the built of a young teenage lass, appeared behind the male and HIT him! Right on the head with some long, thin object! A stick, maybe. I don't know. How am I suppose to know? They all looked like shadows to me."

"You see! She's said it herself! They all looked like shadows!"

He was either getting very desperate.... or is so stubborn to refuse to let go. Hmm. Maybe he is getting desperate. Maybe I should mess around with him a bit.

"Speaking of shadows..." I said in a low, dark voice. I gazed at the prosecutor with hard, stone eyes deprieved of emotion. "There's one lurking behind you. I wonder if you've noticed because it's certainly not yours, Mr Crappy Prosecutor. Then again.... you probably couldn't."

He gave me a freaked-out look and tensed up instantly. He whipped around to look, expecting to really see some form of secondary shadow behind him. However, when he only saw his own, he turned back to glare at me hatefully.

"Don't think I don't know that you're trying to mess around with me!" He hissed.

I smirked weakly, shrugging. "Oh, you can't see it after all. Forget what I said then."

I wasn't really lying. There was a shadow floating behind him. Another wandering spirit that haunts people unknowingly. But of course, without the third eye, he obviously failed to see it. It seemed to cackle in a way, sharing my amusement.

He started to rub the bridge of his nose, trying to regain his calm and confident posture. "Your Honor... the witness claims to have seen three people at the crime scene. How can we be so sure that it's likely?"

I pressed a written note into Feather's hand and sat back onto my chair, leaning backwards and balancing on two legs. I gazed at the clock inventively.

60 seconds...

I watched the clock tick away.

"Your Honor! I would like to say that it's most likely that there might have been three people at the scene in actuality!" Feather said, putting two hands onto the desk. "After all, there were three people living in that apartment! Why would it be surprising? Also, Cho's baseless claim to be at school cannot be proven right. The true colours of this case has now been exposed."

30 seconds...

"Your honor... I...." The enraged prosecutor, as much as he wanted to, couldn't say a word more. Instead, he just stared down at his desk, feeling defeated.

20 seconds...

"Does the prosecution have nothing else to say?" The judge asked, slightly surprised that he didn't finish his statement.

10 seconds...

"..."

"Very well then... It seems to be quite clear what the true ending is now..." He glanced over Cho disapprovingly. He inhaled, ready to announce his verdict.

5 seconds...

"I now declare Mari Shiritaka NOT---"

0 seconds. Time's up.

"I object." the words escaped my smirk-carved mouth.

Like a natural reaction, every single person in the room turned over to stare at me, all probably having the exact same thoughts.

I chuckled. This was admittedly amusing.

"I guess I had enough fun out of this already. Time to get serious. After all, it wouldn't be that impressive if the wrong person got sentenced, would it?" I said, a mischievous glint in my dark eyes.

It's time to get serious now, L. Don't stop watching. The game's not over.... yet.

"What is the meaning of this?" the judge asked, baffled. I ran my fingers through my hair, crossing my legs.

"Cho Shiritaka is not the murderer." I said simply.

This seemed to stir up even more confusion and a little bit of bewilderment.

I smirked wider and played with a strand of my hair. "Mmm. You mean you all really haven't found out? Well... I guess maybe only one person did... but... ah, nevermind." I shook my head. That person should know very well I was talking about him.

"Allow me to clear up the confusion that I've caused. Even though it's likely that Cho Shiritaka is the murderer, I can now say, with 100% confidence, that she is not. Bunko said the murderer had a built like a 'teenage lass'. But did it ever occur to anyone that the person didn't look her age? In fact, the real murderer wasn't even listed on the suspect list. She's sitting right here, right now in this very room, on the edge of her seat, her heart pounding when she finally starts to realize that she's been caught."

I turned my head into the crowd and redirected my glance at the real murderer.


"Isn't that right, Minori-san?"


The girl jerked backwards, as if she had just been slapped across the face. Her eyes were wide and filled with fright and she was clearly trembling as beads of cold sweat rolled down her forehead.

"What is the defense saying? That the young lady sitting over there is the real murderer?" The judge questioned, pointing to the panic-stricken Minori.

"That is correct, Your Honor. And I might want to add that I have every piece of evidence I need to prove that what I'm saying is true."

My eyes were never leaving Minori. "So, would you ever so kindly come up the stand, please?"

At first, she didn't move a muscle. Then, she slowly obliged to my request, dragging herself to the stand, as if she was walking towards her death.

"I will present you with the evidence that I have promised. You will all soon find out that everything makes perfect sense in time to come." I said, putting my suitcase onto Feather's desk. I opened it and flipped open the cover and started to search for the things I needed.

"Truthfully, I was quite surprised when I came to the conclusion myself. In fact, I spent hours making sure that my theory was right. It seemed unlikely that the very person who reported the murder was the culprit herself. But then, as I pondered, why was Minori the one who reported the murder? She couldn't have known unless she had been there herself. That and the fact Mari kept insisting that she was the murderer. The real murderer was probably someone she wanted to defend; someone close to her... Friend? Family? Someone like a sister. I spent time researching more into Minori and found out that she was a working woman. To be certain that it might have been a possibility that Minori was the murderer, I went to her company just before this trial to check her working schedule. She had an evening shift on Sunday that lasted from 6 to 9pm. My suspicion started to lessen then... until... one of her co-workers mentioned that she took a one hour break from 7pm to 8pm. However, this certain co-worker could not make it to court today to pose as a witness, so I got her to write down an affidavit to swear that this was true." I took out the affidavit and passed it to the judge to see.

'So that's why Lady Hope was so late just now...' Feather thought.

"But that's not all the evidence I have." I said, reaching for a small zip-lock bag. I raised it to my eye-level and studied the content inside carefully. "Inside this bag is another piece of evidence that I actually discovered by accident. However, it played a very critical part in hardening my theory. As you can see... inside this bag is an insect that I found on my coat after accidentally leaning against Minori-san's car when she offered to drive me home last night."

Minori stared at me with round, soulful eyes as I carried on talking.

Yes, Minori-san, there was a whole other reason why I made the effort to visit you so late yesterday... and it wasn't just to update you on what was going on. It was to gather more evidence.

"Although rather squashed, the insect could still be identified. I actually got a professor and professional insect collector to identify it myself. Here is his legal report." I slided the single piece of paper onto the table. "It says that this certain insect could only be found at a certain part of Tokyo, near where the Shiritaka residence is. Now, Minori-san lives quite far from there and the insects that can be found near the Shiritaka's cannot be found at her place... so let me ask you, how could the insect possibly gotten stuck onto her car window? Obviously Minori-san had to be some place near the Shiritaka residence... or perhaps too near. And I have been told that the suspect only washed her car 'just before this whole incident'." I quoted her exact words from last night.

"Furthermore... I can still prove that Minori and Seiji had regular contact just about a month before this whole incident. Which solves the question on why she would want to murder him." I started to draw random shapes with my index finger on the desk as I spoke. "Apparently Megumi-san was right about Seiji being a cheater... and he cheated on his wife with his own sister-in-law...."

I stopped drawing a circle halfway to look at Minori's reaction. She looked as if she was going to faint. Then, I glanced over at Mari. She had a mixture of shock, hurt and perplexity on her face. She was trying her best to absorb all the infomation that was just flung over at her.

I closed my eyes. "When I got home, I was starting to do somemore research on my computer when I looked out of the window. I had expected Minori-san to have already driven away... but she didn't. It was a dark night, but I clearly saw her get out of her car and tossed something into the dustbin near the lamp post. After which, only did she drive away. Finding it strange for her to dispose of something only when she dropped me off, I made a quick trip downstairs to check it out. I looked into the dustbin, and guess what I found?"

I took out something and held it against the light.

"Quite a beauty, isn't it?" I commented as I inspected the 8-carat ring in between my fingertips.

"This is what Minori-san threw into the bin last night. I thought it was weird for her to take so long to find her car keys... this was probably what she was finding for in reality. My questioning had probably made her uneasy and she felt that she just had to get rid of this ring to kill her guilt. Why? Because... this ring was given to her by none other than the late Seiji Shiritaka. Though, I doubt you'd give something like a 8-carat ring to a friend, would you?"

I slided the ring across the table with my index finger and thumb. "To support my stand that this ring was from Seiji, I went through the trouble of checking the data of the last few purchases he made with his credit card."

"Now, Minori-san, I think it wasn't your sister you were really worrying about, neh? You were really worried for yourself."

I stopped there, locking eyes with Minori with a satisfied stare.

Suddenly, she stopped trembling and fell onto her knees, tears of fear dripping down her face. My words had pieced through her like daggers and she couldn't take it anymore. She just broke down and started to sob.

"Okay!" she cried, grabbing hold of the both sides of her head. "I can't take it anymore!!! Yes! I admit it! I did it! I killed Seiji Shiritaka!" she wailed in between sobs.


".... I was so heart-broken... We were actually going out together secretly... but he was married to Mari. He gave me money, love and everything else that I could possibly want. Then, he wanted to break off with me. I tried to get him to stay, but he refused. He left me there. Without support from him, my bills started to pile up and I had to make a lot of loans. I was so alone and miserable. And... I wanted revenge. So that night... I took a one-hour break and decided to get it over with. I sneaked into their house to find them in the middle of a fight. I didn't care. I grabbed the nearest thing next to me, a metal broom, and hit him as hard as I could. He fell down and stopped breathing. Mari was shocked and shaken up. I told her that I came to visit her because I didn't have work that day. And that when I saw Seiji lashing out at her, my natural instint kicked in and I had to do something. She believed my lie and told me that it wasn't my fault and that she would take the blame... so.... I called the police to report the body.... I.... " she trailed off, still holding onto her head tightly.

"I'm so sorry." she whispered. "I'm sorry... Mari..."

"... has the Jury came to the final verdict?" the Judge asked at last after a long silence.

"Yes, your honour." a representitive from the Jury stood up. "We hereby announce Mari Shiritaka... NOT GUILTY."

I watched silently as the policemen took her away and the Judge annouced the court to be adjourned.

I packed back all my things into my suitcase, feeling satisfied with how the case went.

Finally.

Game over.