November 1st, 2019
"On one last note, I believe that now is an appropriate time to remind you all of the upcoming Bar Examination. Applications are now open." Guest lecturer Mikami Teru snapped his book shut, flinty gaze boring into them all as he stared up from the platform at the front of the room. His long black hair swished with the motion. A respected prosecutor, Mikami commanded their attention with ease. "All of you are filled with overwhelming potential to become great lawyers. For those graduating next semester—and that is most of you in the room—you are all eligible to take the examinations. Fear not the overly-emphasized importance of the exam—if you have been studying hard these past two or three years, it will be no trouble."
The lecture was over after Mikami's reminder. Kindaichi Yuutarou stood from his seat and marched out of the hall with his backpack slung over one shoulder. The Bar Exam, huh? He mulled over the idea of taking it in his head. Truth be told, he was uncertain—there were only so many times one could take it before being disqualified. And Kindaichi wasn't exactly the cream of the crop in his faculty—University of Tokyo had approximately three-hundred candidates in its law school and Kindaichi stood somewhere in the middle of the pack. Maybe a bit higher than average, but that was it. Taking the exam right after graduating might be a waste of time and money. Not to mention it's strike one if I fail. It was not uncommon for people to spend years studying for the exam and only qualify in their late twenties or early thirties.
And then there was Sakusa Kiyoomi.
Sweat beaded on Kindaichi's temple as he wafted between being discouraged or being motivated.
An anomaly in the entire system, Sakusa Kiyoomi had passed the bar before even graduating university—and at a very young age, at that. He'd been even younger than Kindaichi's age—twenty-three—when he became an official public prosecutor.
I wonder what he would think. Kindaichi threw his scarf back around his neck when it loosened. It was shaping up to be a chilly November. Perhaps he should go to him for advice. There was nothing embarrassing about it—Sakusa was his mentor and his boss. Or had been until spring this year, when his internship had ended. Sometimes, Sakusa still called upon him for his assistance or company.
His phone rang.
Upon seeing who it was, Kindaichi lit up and immediately answered. "Hey!"
"Hi!" his girlfriend, Iwasaki Shino, chirped back. "You just finished your morning class, right?"
"Wouldn't call it morning," replied Kindaichi, checking his watch. "It's already noon." His lecture had been two hours long. "Where are you right now? Let's go grab lunch."
"Funny. I was thinking the same thing. I'm going through the latest episode of Kindergarten Bully with my editor at Marsbucks. The one next to our apartment."
"I look forward to reading it, Usagi-sensei," Kindaichi teased, referring to her online alias. "I'm your number one fan, after all."
"Oh, stop that." He could practically see the blush on her cheeks. "Kotoko-san will be going soon, so come join me."
Kindaichi hung up with the promise to see her in twenty minutes. He was floating on cloud nine after that call—little made him happier than being with his girlfriend. Their first meeting hadn't been ideal—an active shooter situation was hardly what anyone would describe as romantic—but they'd been dating for a little over a year now. Things were going great as well—Kindaichi had moved out of his student dorm and into a shared apartment with Shino.
His old friend, Kageyama, had replaced him in the dorm, much to Kunimi's delight.
"Hey, Kindaichi!"
Speak of the devil. Kindaichi whirled around. "Kunimi! Yachi-san!"
If Kindaichi had to describe the friendship between Kunimi and Yachi, he would describe it as odd. They had found common ground being oddballs and got along surprisingly well.
"It's been so long!" Yachi greeted cheerily, a skip in her step as she halted in front of Kindaichi. "Did you just finish a class?"
"Yep. A two-hour lecture with a guest speaker."
"Those are the worst," commented Kunimi, nose scrunching up.
"Eh. It wasn't so bad."
Kunimi was teaching for Todai now. Well—he wasn't teaching any lectures but he had several tutorials for undergrad classes lined up in his schedule. And unlike the undergrads, he was the teacher, not the student.
Yachi had finished her four-year degree this year and had started working for a design company—and she'd gotten the job without a stellar letter of recommendation from her mother, which pleased her immensely.
They walked together to the bus stop, making conversation. Like Kindaichi, Kunimi and Yachi had their own plans today, and they would all part ways at the train station. It being Friday, the atmosphere was a lot more relaxed than usual.
"Bar Exam?" Yachi parroted when Kindaichi spoke about the tail end of Mikami's lecture.
"It's an exam that allows me to be administrated as an attorney," explained Kindaichi. "It takes place over four days in May and has two stages—a multiple choice exam and an essay-style exam. We have to answer questions on basically everything we've ever learned—public law, civil law, criminal law, commercial law... We also have to answer questions on an elective subject. Mine is labor law."
Kunimi hummed. "Sounds complicated. So the next round is May 2020, right?"
"Right. I'm able to qualify as a candidate since I graduate law school before then."
"Are you going to do it?" Yachi asked, excited. "I bet you'll do great! You did solve the mystery of HNN Foundation's corruption."
"It wasn't just me," Kindaichi pointed out. "Sakusa and a whole lot of others contributed more than I did."
"They wouldn't have been able to do it without you."
"You know, Kindaichi, she has a point."
Kindaichi chuckled sheepishly. "I dunno, guys. This exam is all theory—and I've always been better at the practical aspects of everything I do. I also only get to attempt it five times. I don't wanna waste an opportunity by doing it straight outta law school."
"Why not?" Kunimi challenged. "You'll have all the information fresh in your head when you do it. If you wait another year or two, you'll forget everything."
"I'm not that bad! But I guess that makes sense..." Kindaichi was still ambivalent, though. Should I take the leap or not? Kunimi and Yachi seemed to believe in him. But I better consult more people, first.
After parting ways, Kindaichi found a seat in his train carriage. His neighborhood was only two stops away. He texted Shino, telling her that he was on his way.
[Shino]: Ok! :) Have a safe journey
Kindaichi's cheeks hurt from smiling.
More people poured in. A man wearing a suit sat down beside him, accidentally jostling his arm.
"Sorry," he apologized, raising a hand.
"It's alright—Professor Mikami?"
Mikami Teru did a double-take. "Oh. You were one of the postgrads. Kindaichi-san, right? There's no need to call me what I'm not. Just Mikami is fine."
"Are you heading back to the office, Mikami-san?" Kindaichi inquired.
"I am." A smile quirked his lips up. "I have a few more criminals to delete."
"Delete?"
"Prosecute," Mikami clarified.
"Ah. So you're going to indict people?"
"Yes. I pursue all cases that come my way, no matter the chance of winning."
The last Kindaichi had heard, Mikami had a pretty respectable success rate, especially for someone as young as thirty-seven years old. He won about eighty percent of the cases he took—and if he took every case he got, then that was even more impressive.
"That's amazing," Kindaichi gushed. "You have a strong sense of justice, Mikami-san."
"Someone has to do the right thing," Mikami stated. Perhaps jokingly, he added, "It's not like we can rely on interference from God."
"Oh. You're religious?"
Mikami fished out the rosary hidden in his shirt, confirming Kindaichi's suspicions. "I will admit I am starting to lose my faith." He tucked it back in. "If only God were not so callous as to ignore the suffering of mortals on earth. I want to believe in a god who will change this world for the better. Since there appears to be no such god progressing society, I have taken it upon myself to do it instead by deleting the sinners." His brow creased. "It can be tiring, but if people like you and me all work hard to scrub the world of crime then we will achieve it."
Scrub the world of crime... It sounded very grim—like Mikami was after retribution and not justice. Kindaichi wasn't sure if a world without crime was possible without compromising freedom but he did not argue Mikami. "I'll do my best," he promised.
"Good." Mikami smiled again. "You'll make a good prosecutor, Kindaichi-san. I think you should take the Bar Exam next year."
"Really?" But who says I want to be a prosecutor? Maybe I want to be a lawyer instead... He didn't think bringing that up would be a good idea so he stayed quiet about it. "I dunno, Mikami-san... What if I'm not ready?"
"Nobody is ever ready. But we do what we have to do anyway."
That was true, Kindaichi thought. He hadn't been ready at all last year to face all the bad memories the investigation dredged up but he had done so anyway. Things weren't perfect—he still awoke sweating and pale from a monstrous nightmare occasionally—but going to therapy with Kunimi had helped him immensely in processing the trauma. "I'll think it over," he said at last.
"That's all I can ask you for. Good luck, Kindaichi-san, and study hard."
Mikami got off at the next stop.
"Yuutarou-kun, over here!"
Shino waved at him from her table. Grinning at her, he hurried over and sat down opposite her, leaning across the round table to plant a kiss on her forehead. "Hey, Shino-chan. What did Kotoko-san say?"
"She gave me the go-ahead," Shino said. "I just need to redraw a few scenes. I update every Sunday, so it should be ready by then!"
Iwasaki Shino was one of the first Japanese artists to capitalize on the growing popularity of webtoons. Her demographic was largely international, her debut work—Kindergarten Bully—having been translated into English, Korean, and many more languages.
Kindaichi intertwined their fingers. "I'm so proud of you."
"Thank you, Yuutarou-kun. Let's order something to eat."
Over lunch, they discussed what was happening in their lives. Shino was being increasingly pressured by her fans to set up a fan-meet in Harujuku. From the chat sections in her streams to the reply boxes on her social media accounts, fans were begging for a meetup with their favorite author.
"It's quite exhilarating," Shino told him. "I never thought I'd make it this far. But what about you, Yuutarou-kun? Anything interesting happen to you today?"
"Well..." Kindaichi recounted his indecision with taking the next Bar Exam for the umpteenth time, Shino nodding along at certain intervals. "So, yeah. Should I or should I not? Gah! I've never been so torn about something before."
"There, there." Shino patted his back. "No need to stress out. If you want my opinion, though, I think Kunimi, Yachi, and Mikami-san are right. I don't think this is the sort of thing most people would feel ready for even in their forties or fifties. There's really no loss in trying it out. We have the money."
"I don't want to spend your money—"
"Nonsense. You're my boyfriend. I have lots saved up."
Kindaichi sagged. "No way. I'll get a part-time job instead." Spending my girlfriend's money? That's something only a loser would do... "Right. I'll start looking."
"So you're going to do the exam?"
He hesitated. "I'm still not sure yet. But getting a job early won't hurt."
"I'll help you look," she offered, and they spent the next tow hours eating, drinking, and looking at job listings posted online.
"Did you know that only eighteen percent of lawyers in Japan are women?"
"No way! What a shitty statistic."
From where he was standing at the break room coffee machine, Shirabu peered over his shoulder. Chinen and Obata were seated in one of the booths, both of them holding cups of coffee. He waited for his to stop pouring before taking it with him. He sat down beside Obata. "So what?"
"Such a caveman," Obata jeered, poking him in the ribs. Hard. She really didn't know her own strength. "Of course you don't think it's a big deal."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"No offence, Shirabu-san, but I don't think men would really understand," Chinen interrupted before Obata could make some stinging remark.
Shirabu shrugged it off. "Okay. But what brought this on?"
The friendship between Chinen and Obata had started last year. After Hirakawa Noriko was convicted of being an accessory to murder, Obata had been rather lonely. Not that she and Noriko had really talked much after high school, but she had missed having a female friend around who wasn't involved in any shady business. As for Chinen, her three bodyguards had gone their own way.
Number Three was off fulfilling his dreams in Australia to become a dolphin trainer.
Number Two was traversing through Tibet, attempting to achieve Nirvana.
Number One had made peace with Chinen's cat, Thundercock, and was currently producing an action movie featuring the feline, lots of explosions, and at least one hot babe.
"You probably wouldn't have noticed," elaborated Chinen. "But things have been a lot worse for us women lately. The wage gap has increased by five percent and a study published this year showed that between last July and this July, forty-seven percent more women than men became unemployed and are struggling to find work. The likelihood of women rising into senior positions in the workforce have also decreased, and sentiments to keep women trapped in traditional household roles are growing on social media."
"But at least birth rates have gone up," Obata said, dryly.
"We can pinpoint where it all started," sighed Chinen. "The fall of Justice Terano."
"She was in the wrong, though," Shirabu said, raising an eyebrow. "She conspired to keep an innocent man in jail." And she was currently serving four years in prison as a result.
"Of course she was in the wrong," agreed Obata. "But she didn't make such drastic decisions overnight. Terano's actions are a symptom, not the disease. And that's the thing that people don't seem to be getting. They're only seeing the surface. They're seeing the inflammation and not the infection. In fact, things are evolving backwards."
Once more, Chinen sighed. "Tell me about it."
Throughout the whole talk, Shirabu and Obata's phones had been vibrating in their pockets. Finally, unable to take it anymore, Obata whipped her phone out and answered the hundreds of texts that Raymond Smith had spammed in the group chat. She groaned. "More pictures of Mimi."
Shirabu grimaced. "Oh boy."
Smith's daughter, Mimi Smith, had been born in April. She had just started crawling and Smith spared his coworkers no mercy, refusing to cease spamming photos of his baby girl. The only solace Shirabu took in this was that Obata was suffering just as much as he was.
"She's adorable but I'm starting to see her face when I close my eyes," Obata said with utter seriousness.
"Damn," said Shirabu. "You should probably see a doctor."
"I am a doctor!"
"No, you're not. I'm the only doctor in this room and I'm not the kind that gives out lobotomies."
Obata turned in her seat, staring Shirabu right in the eye. "You might not understand the troubles of women, but..." She smirked. "I'm sure you'll be closer to understanding once your new boss comes in."
"What?"
"Oh, didn't you hear? The new coroner is coming in today for his first day. He'll be your boss from now on."
"What about Maebara-san?"
"He's going back to his previous station. I hear you'll be stuck with this one for a while."
Ever since Miyazawa had been forced into retirement, Shirabu had been cycling between new bosses. All of them had been temporary. And now you're telling me that this new boss of mine is going to be permanent? Tch. "It doesn't matter. He won't be the first shitty boss."
"I never said he was shitty," Obata said, still grinning that grin. "But let's just say he's been penalized for draping intestines around his neck before. He said he liked to pretend they were scarves."
"What the fuck? Who is this psychopath?!"
"He's also the youngest ever coroner to be appointed thanks to his daddy's training and influence. They call him a mad scientist."
There was no way any of this could be true. Shirabu's hackles flattened as he took a sip of his coffee. "You're just trying to scare me. It's not gonna work."
"It does seem pretty unbelievable," Chinen added, tentatively. "Could someone like that really exist?"
"And this is coming from her," Shirabu felt the need to emphasize, "Let no one ever call Prosecutor Chinen normal."
"What do you guys mean 'could someone like that really exist'?" Obata crossed one leg over the other, rolling her eyes. "Shirabu-san, you literally dated a suspected arsonist who was only let off the hook because of a risque porn tape of her pegging you to orgasm city during the time of the incident."
"She did not peg me!" Shirabu shrieked. His cheeks heated up as he glared daggers at Obata. "Not in that video, anyway."
Obata gawked. "Shirabu-san—!"
"Not. Another. Word."
"Orgasm city," muttered Chinen, rubbing her chin. "I'm gonna use that sometime."
"In what world would you ever need to use that?!"
The double doors swung open, and there stood Secretary Jay. His usually immaculately gelled hair was sticking up in various places, eyes round and haunted. "Everyone, he's here. The new coroner. And he's... Oh god."
Suddenly, fear encapsulated Shirabu. Anything that could ruffle Jay's feathers was something worth being terrified about.
Obata clicked her tongue. "Well then... Good luck with him, Shirabu-san."
"I should be going back to the office," Chinen put in.
Shirabu went white as a sheet. "Please don't leave me here."
"Sorry, but we want to live."
Jay disappeared out the door like he had been dragged out, not even having the time to scream.
Everyone froze.
Chinen began to pray. "Hail Mary full of grace..."
The doors opened again, only Secretary Jay's regal presence had been replaced by a black boot. Attached to the boot was a leg, and attached to the leg was—
With a demonic screech of delayed terror, Obata hurled her coffee—cup and all—at him. It hit him in the face, knocking his glasses off and sending him to the ground.
"Ahh!" the man screamed, rolling on the floor. "I've been hit! Yuzuru down! Yuzuru down!"
Misery lining every inch of his body, Shirabu's shoulders sagged as Komaki Yuzuru continued to do an accurate worm impression. "I'll call HR."
A/N: Welcome to Shard Society: After Story! Follow as Kindaichi deals with the bar exam and whether or not to be a prosecutor or a lawyer, Shirabu faces workplace oppression for the first time, Sakusa and Atsumu work through their relationship and some accidental child acquisition, Sakusa works through his trauma, Naoko and Iwaizumi have to deal with the grave consequences of a mistake, and Kageyama comes to a crossroads with what he wants to do in the future. Of course, the rest of the cast will get some time, too.
This story will be largely character-focused with no plot in particular. More slice of life and drama.
Chapters will probably be shorter than chapters in Shard Society; overall this story will be much shorter.
I also finished Legend of Korra recently and I am not ashamed to admit that I personally liked it more than The Last Airbender. I'm not saying one show is better than the other; I just happened to like one more. And yes, 'Yuzuru down' is a reference to 'Wu down'.