13 Bitter Memories

From looking at Tom and Jerry through "All-Seer", he could see that they were veterans at using the good cop, bad cop routine. However, they had a twist to it. Jerry was the one with an amiable face, while Tom had a fierce one. But, Jerry was the bad cop! It was no doubt a ploy to confuse unexperienced criminals, and they would be less inclined to deal with a smiling 'devil' that threatened them with prolonged sentences.

They might even be able to get confessions from first-years about things that weren't even considered a crime; like watching kinky p*rn, j*cking off to your elementary school teacher, etc.

For the likes of Basara and Iwatani, they would probably play it cool through and through. Some more playful types might even purposefully claim to be 89 years old, or a female despite being a male…

In general, the police did not receive any useful information from the majority of the students. Surprisingly, Plato had seen relieved expressions on the students that left the interrogation room, so he was somewhat curious to see their routine. Therefore, when he was called up, he walked with a brisk stride and anticipation on his face.

When Tom and Jerry saw this, they thought, 'How sick can a student be to look forward to being interrogated?'

They didn't dawdle on this for long, and immediately commenced when Plato entered.

"What's your name?"

"Amakusa Naofumi. Ah, here it would be Naofumi Amakusa. Naofumi is my given name."

"… Alright, what's your age?"

"22."

"Gender?"

"Male."

"Do you know anyone who has been acting suspicious lately, or seen anyone do so?"

"No."

So far, the one questioning had been Tom. As expected, Jerry butt in pretty quickly.

"I'm only going to say this once. If you withhold any information from the police, it's not going to be pretty. We can charge you for that. It'll go on your record, and you won't find any good jobs. Since you're studying at a university, you must think yourself smart. But in the end, you've only experienced the sheltered life. Once you get out there and you can't find a job, you will think back to this day and regret."

"… Are you done? I came here to help, not to listen to you whine about being a detective."

Plato himself had done his fair share of interrogations. Although his previous world tended to use complicated torture equipment to force a confession, he was familiar with verbal persuasion as well. After hearing Jerry's spiel, he had concluded that it was not worth his time. He originally thought it would be unique, but the result left him uninspired and dissatisfied. He quickly reverted back to his cold personality.

Jerry was left speechless, but Tom was quick on the uptake and covered for his partner.

"Ahem. Naofumi, can I call you that? We know that you want to help. It's just that the criminal might have threatened you, or coerced you into not exposing him. Jerry here was just trying to warn you of the consequences. We truly did not mean anything by it."

"Hm. Whatever. Are you done now?"

"You little brat! Have some respect, will you? We're trying to catch a criminal that is threatening the safety of the nation!"

"No, you're really not. Do you really think a global syndicate would choose to base themselves in a student college that was built not long ago? Not only that, this place is only accessible by students. Unless their people are staff that work here, it would be very inconvenient for them to move in and out of the building. Not to mention their equipment, just their very presence would alarm most people. It's obvious that they are just using a newly recruited scapegoat to throw you off their scent."

"You!! What's wrong with communicating with a scapegoat? If we negotiate with him properly and promise a lighter sentence, he might even lead us back to their main base."

"You've just agreed that he's a scapegoat. Would they even allow someone they want arrested to know any important information? How did you even become a detective?"

Tom was helpless after experiencing the dialogue between Jerry and Plato. There was no doubt that what Plato had said was correct. Everyone in the police department were thinking the same thing. But what could they do? The government demanded results, and there were no other substantial leads. He just felt that Plato could have worded his rebuttals a bit… nicer.

"Alright, let's stop here. Jerry, you can stop with the act now. Let's actually listen if Naofumi has any constructive advice for us."

Since his partner had said so, Jerry did indeed stop with his act. His previous hostility had vanished into thin air, and was replaced with an irritated and frustrated look.

"Thank you. Naofumi, since you can analyse the situation to such a point and are actually willing to help us, do you have any better… methods to catch the criminal?"

"Not really. I'm done with my piece. If we're finished here, can I leave? I still have things to do."

"…"

This time, Jerry got genuinely angry. He was positively fuming. His face was red, as if he had just eaten the world's hottest chilli. If it weren't for Tom interjecting before he could speak, he would surely have given Plato an earful.

"Alright, you can go."

After Plato left, he could hear sounds of shouting and cursing inside the room. What he had done was indeed a bit overboard. He originally had a neutral feeling towards the two, and had bordered on good after hearing Tom's words. This showed the effectiveness of the good cop, bad cop method.

However, Jerry's following words had struck a chord in him. It was as if all hell had broken loose in Plato's mind, and he had lost all control. It took his all to reign in his murderous aura, so he couldn't control the words he said. He originally didn't even want to divulge the fact that he had thought deeper into this case.

Plato's previous world had been fraught with danger after the Great Calamity. Even though there were warning signs and oracles that foretold of the Calamity, the nations of humans didn't care. When people were sent to warn the leaders of each nation to prepare, they were dismissed casually, and some were even beheaded for bringing 'inauspicious' news.

Each and every time, the leaders had responded with the same thing – "we are busy with managing our nation". Even though it was something on the scale of the entire planet, the people were still too busy trying to further their personal gain. He hadn't experienced this for himself, but he had heard about it during his five-year stint in wandering the world.

Despite it being a second-hand experience for him, he had felt incensed at the leaders' decisions. Therefore, whenever he heard the words, "protect the nation", "threaten the nation", or anything to that effect, he snapped. Although this was a different world and the phrase was meant in a completely different context, he still couldn't control himself.

After all, Plato had inexplicably linked the leaders' refusals as the direct cause of the loss of his loved ones, and his hometown. Everyone he knew or cared about died in the minutes after the advent of the Great Calamity, and it was all because the leaders were not prepared for it, and because they hadn't warned their people. It was a good thing that those leaders were already dead when Plato heard of their actions; otherwise, they might have suffered a fate worse than death.

Plato left the quad in a foul mood. The interrogation session had unexpectedly fished a repressed and bitter memory to the forefront, and he developed no small amount of dislike for the two who had done so. Despite that, he still paid attention to the overall situation. It involved the lockdown of Bruce Hall after all, and he wasn't one to wallow away in a fixed location.

When the two detectives finally made their arrest, Plato expressed his utmost surprise at the perpetrator, as well as experiencing a sense of urgency.