Chapter 2: “He is an apostle of justice,” said a certain department

“Shirakiiii! I heard you pulled your crazy shit again! How do you never learn!?”

Back at the police station, my superior, chief Takada, was scolding me for running over a criminal. His receding hairline made the light shine off his head brightly. I heard the others backbiting him quietly as he shouted at me.

“Yikes, dude, chief Takada’s snapping at Shiraki again. I mean, he’s technically in the right but like…”
“The guy was a piece of shit that killed so many female high schoolers. He deserved to get run over.”
“Yeah preach. And plus, ever since inspector Shiraki started working, the crime rate in Tokyo plummeted. Chief Takada should just let him off…”

I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but since these guys in our department work to fight crime every day, they’re extremely harsh on criminals. They truly believe my violent arresting methods are a show of my strong sense of justice.

Wait no, that’s still not good! If you pit a criminal with some violent-crazed guy, regardless of who wins, it’s not gonna be a good result for you! Besides, every time I’ve almost killed someone has been by accident, so that’s even worse…

Man… this is why chief Takada is so comforting to me. Even though he’s currently clouding my glasses with his breath and spitting everywhere from shouting, I still have nothing but the utmost respect for him.

“Shiraki, are you even listening to me!?”
“Yes sir, of course. I am fully aware that my actions are completely unacceptable… I’m just a lousy cop that’s only capable of hurting others.”
“Okay don’t beat yourself down that much! I don’t want to accept it but it’s true that the crime rate has gone down thanks to you… argh god! Look, whatever, just be more gentle when you’re catching criminals!”
“Yes sir!”

I gave a strong answer and returned to my seat. Aw man, today’s scolding was as great as ever. I wish he could scold me more.

I mean like, wouldn’t you go crazy if no one got angry at you for running someone over?
You’d think they would’ve fired me already and yet, I’ve just been getting promotion after promotion. Seriously, what are the higher-ups thinking? I heard I’m pretty popular online too.

That’s why chief Takada is such a valuable person for me since he actually scolds me for what I do. Everyone says he’s biased and stubborn, but I sincerely respect him from the bottom of my heart.

Plus, we’re comrades who share hair problems. He’s worried about his receding hairline and I’m worried about my white hairs. I looked at the mirror on the corner of my desk, but all I could see was a white-haired old man.

I combed my hand through my hair and sighed.

“… do I even have any black hairs left…?” I muttered.

I have what you call premature white hair. It started from when I was younger and random white hairs would pop out from my head sometimes. I remember the bullies in the village used to make fun of me for it and the stress from that would make me grow more white hairs, which they would further make fun of. This continued until I had nothing but white hairs by the time I was an adult.

“What a horrid, vicious cycle… if I knew the bullying was going to make me like this, I should’ve used force to stop it all…” I muttered.

As soon as I let that pointless remark, everyone in my department looked at me with wide-open eyes.

Huh? What!? Why are you guys looking at me like that, it’s really scary!

　◆　◇　◆

These days, there is a certain police officer whose name is spread far and wide. That officer is none other than inspector Shiraki. Ever since he began working at a small police box, he has arrested many criminals on the wanted list. Due to his mysterious, fully white appearance and the merciless methods he utilises to fight evil, he’s even become famous among the general public.

He’s truly the embodiment of justice. The title, ‘The White Enforcer’ was first spread among the youth, but now everyone knows of that name.

However, the people in a certain department knew his internal struggles between his sanity and his sense of justice.

“Look, Shiraki’s running his hand through his hair again.”
“Just shows how stressed he is… he must be doubting his methods.”

The people in the department were all looking at Shiraki from a distance. He’s a man who’s never once trivialized the lives of criminals. If he did, he wouldn’t have listened to chief Takada’s lecture so seriously.

He no doubt understands that his methods are much too extreme. And yet…

“I respect inspector Shiraki. Fighting violence with violence might not be the best idea, but the number of criminals in the city has definitely gone down thanks to him.”
“And the police’s power went down because people wanted to protect the human rights of criminals, but he helped us regain our power.”
“So many family members of the victims have thanked him too. If only he wasn’t so hard on himself…”

Shiraki’s co-workers looked at him with a mix of respect and sorrow. If he was unconcerned after hurting so many people, he wouldn’t be as popular as he is now. The reason everyone respects him is because Shiraki Touya is a genuinely good person who understands the risk he brings.

However, it is all a misunderstanding!

Shiraki most certainly regrets running people over, but the extent of that regret is much smaller than everyone else thinks it is. He’s running his hand through his hair because of a totally different, stupid reason, which is that he’s worried about his white hairs. What’s really incredible here is how fast his train of thought can change tracks, considering he was just getting scolded a moment ago.

In the first place, practically all his arrests happened by chance, so if he was a ‘genuinely good person,’ he would have confessed that it was just an accident from the first time he ran someone over. Instead, he tricked everyone by acting like he was the shit, so he really is just scum.

However, the people in his department did not realise this. Shiraki always acts mysteriously, so they were blinded by their respect for him, which caused this messed up misunderstanding to last for so many years.

And now, back to the present.

“What a horrid, vicious cycle… I should…  use force to stop it all…” Shiraki muttered.

All the cops turned their heads to Shiraki in surprise after hearing that. As they only heard part of Shiraki’s pointless remark, it only furthered their misunderstanding. They interpreted his statement as, “I should use more force to stop this vicious cycle of crime and hatred,” which just served to strengthen his respect from his co-workers…

Back | Title | Next