Nocturne of Remembrance Read Online Free PDF Page B

apparently giving up.
    “For now, what do you need from me?”
    “The trial records. Everything.”
    “I will mail them to you once I have confirmed your appointment notification. And what else?”
    “That will be enough.”
    “The trial record is on my computer’s hard disk, but I will delete it once you receive it. For this, you have no choice but to trust me.”
    Since the negotiation was over, there was no point in staying any longer. Mikoshiba stood up and opened the door without so much as a glance at Horai.
    As he left, he heard a tongue click behind him.
    *
    Central Governmental Complex Building #6, Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office.
    From the tenth floor where Kyohei Misaki stood, he could survey the red brick building next door. Retaining the dignity of its Meiji-era western fashioning, it embodied the authority of the prewar Ministry of Justice. The neo-baroque style that informed the entire structure was a remnant of Japan’s Imperial era.
    For a while after he was posted to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office, Misaki got fairly emotional at the view. But as one would expect, six months later, it only looked like the archives building of the Justice Ministry that it was.
    It clearly had to do with his being swamped with work, he thought. Compared to his previous assignment at another district public prosecutor’s office, the number of cases brought here was extremely large. He finally realized, after being transferred here, why there was such a clear distinction between the treatment of other district offices’ chief prosecutors and Tokyo’s.
    There was a knock at his office door. He acknowledged it, and in walked administrative clerk Junichiro Yokoyama.
    “I brought you the preliminary memo, sir.”
    “Put it over there.”
    Yet another new case had come in. Misaki thought he was accustomed to the heavy volume of work, but it came in such quick succession that his urge to be industrious was waning. He couldn’t let his subordinates catch on to it, though, and kept his back to Yokoyama. Yet the clerk was a step ahead of him.
    “Prosecutor Misaki … Are you not feeling well, sir?”
    “Why do you think that?”
    “Because normally you are sitting down when I visit your office.”
    Misaki laughed. “Well, I’m not a PC accessory. I’m a human being, and occasionally I like to view the outside scenery.”
    “I, too, will look outside when I want to change my mood. But in the presence of his subordinates, Prosecutor Misaki alone never shows a different face for no reason.”
    Misaki was surprised and, at the same time, a little impressed whenhe heard this. “Oh my, you are very observant.”
    “Yes, sir. To me, the Deputy Chief Prosecutor is the model of excellence for a prosecutor. And I try not to miss even your slightest gesture.”
    That such words, which would normally set one’s teeth on edge, did not sound like sarcasm coming from Yokoyama was to his credit. He had a child-like innocent streak unbefitting a clerk at a district public prosecutor’s office.
    “A model of excellence … really? I am no such thing. I am a mere public servant.”
    “Oh no, sir. The Deputy Chief Prosecutor impresses us here as ‘the elite’ among prosecutors.”
    Being referred to as elite, Misaki felt somewhat uncomfortable.
    In his former posting as the Nagoya District Chief Prosecutor, he was the top official there, but he became Deputy Chief when he was transferred to Tokyo. The new title sounded like a demotion, but actually it was a promotion. After serving two years as the Tokyo District Deputy Chief Prosecutor, his next position would be as the High Public Prosecutor’s Deputy Chief, and two years later he would arrive and become the Tokyo District Chief Prosecutor.
    This career track that he vaguely had in mind was not so outlandish. If he made no blunders in each of the respective offices, it would unfold in due course.
    Misaki, however, did not in the least intend to