Winning is everything: Conan

Half an hour passed quickly, and everyone gathered again in the arbitration room.

Reiko Kujo adjusted her clothes, sat in her seat, patted her face, and tried her best to remain calm.

"Prosecutor Kujo..."

Seeing this, Ryusu Masami, who was beside her, couldn't help but speak to comfort her.

But as soon as he called her name, his superior shot him a sharp glare. Startled, he immediately shrank back like a frightened quail.

Reiko Kujo realized she had lost her composure. She quickly took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Stay calm. Don't fall into Keisuke Kumiko's trap!"

She kept muttering to herself, trying to encourage herself.

But to be honest, the disadvantage in the first half had drained almost all of her energy.

As a woman, her mental state was easily affected due to her menstrual cycle.

Defeat was already evident.

Once everyone was present, the judge in the middle struck the gavel.

"Court is back in session! Prosecution, please present your response to the defendant's representative regarding the witness testimonies."

"In this regard, this court acknowledges the opposing party's argument."

Reiko Kujo stood up and carefully restructured her words.

"The testimonies of the four witnesses are hearsay. Considering their reliability, they are not strong enough to convict the defendant."

She paused.

"However, the defendant's methods have been repeatedly verified by the Metropolitan Police Department and the Prosecutor's Office and have been proven feasible. Therefore, we cannot rule out the possibility that he is a murder suspect."

"Objection!"

Before Reiko Kujo could finish speaking, Kumito immediately stood up.

"If people could be convicted based solely on reasoning, then the world would be filled with wrongful convictions. Isn't that right, Sleeping Kogoro?"

Kumito looked at Kogoro Mouri with a sarcastic smile.

"You bastard! What did you say?!"

Kogoro Mouri was so enraged that he nearly jumped down from the witness stand to use his judo skills on him.

Of course, the court bailiffs quickly restrained him.

Keisuke Kumiko didn't even glance at him, merely smiling faintly as he looked toward the judges on the bench.

The three judges and the jury whispered among themselves for a while.

Then, the judge in the middle struck the gavel again.

"Objection sustained! The defendant's argument is valid! The prosecution must present stronger evidence!"

"What?! How can this be valid?!"

Kogoro Mouri kept shouting.

The judges glanced at him and sighed.

If it were another witness, another detective, they might have considered it.

But this was Kogoro Mouri!

Before earning the nickname "Sleeping Kogoro," he had worked on many cases with the police. However, the police—especially Inspector Megure—never had a high opinion of him.

The phrase "he often muddles up cases" had led to countless wrongful convictions.

Thanks to this man, the Supreme Court worked endless overtime, heard countless appeals, and witnessed the release of many wrongly accused suspects. It was a complete waste of energy trying to prove a case with this guy.

So in the minds of the judges, Kogoro Mouri's name had long been tainted!

From the prosecution's bench, seeing the judges' expressions, Reiko Kujo knew something was wrong.

Although courtroom debates in Japan followed an adversarial system, the final right of interpretation still lay with the judge.

In other words, if the judge said, "Objection sustained," then it was sustained. If the judge said, "Objection overruled," then no matter how much one argued, it was pointless.

So in courtroom debates, the judge's impression was crucial.

"Damn it..."

Reiko Kujo gritted her teeth and had no choice but to present her last piece of evidence.

"The prosecution submits an animal transfer certificate!"

Shortly after, a gun was brought forward.

It was a Smith & Wesson M439, a semi-automatic pistol once used by the U.S. military. It had long been discontinued, but some had entered the market through gray and black-market channels.

"After forensic analysis, we used polymerase chain reaction technology and found a large amount of the defendant's DNA on the gun, especially on the trigger. Therefore, we can accuse the defendant of murder!"

Reiko Kujo waved a stack of forensic reports in front of everyone.

However, her voice lacked conviction.

This physical evidence was too weak because the gun had already been…

As expected, Keisuke immediately countered.

"Only the defendant's DNA? I'm afraid that's not the case. Is your information incomplete?"

He simply displayed his signature smirk.

Like Reiko Kujo, he also produced a set of forensic reports.

"This is the evaluation report I received from the Metropolitan Police Department. It's the same as Prosecutor Kujo's!"

Keisuke Kumiko posted the reports one by one on the board in the center of the courtroom.

"As you can see, it's not just our client's DNA. There's also a large amount of DNA from other individuals—for example, the deceased himself, our dear Great Detective Mouri, and an unidentified sample that may belong to a child."

Keisuke tilted his head with a curious expression.

"So, besides our client and the deceased, why is there DNA from others?"

Suddenly, he seemed to realize something.

"Was the physical evidence tampered with in multiple ways before being presented? If so, it's inadmissible!"

"…"

"…"

Kumiko's words were a devastating blow.

On the witness stand, Kogoro Mouri gritted his teeth.

Although Kumiko didn't explicitly name him, the tone of his words was clearly directed at him.

After all, detectives often act on their own before the police arrive, disrupting crime scenes.

It was undeniable that this sometimes caused issues with evidence collection.

At the time, he had been so anxious over the murder of an important classmate that he completely forgot to preserve the evidence.

This was his negligence as a detective, but now, his opponent was using it as a fatal weakness to attack him.

"Does the prosecution have any other evidence?"

Without even looking at Kogoro Mouri, Kumiko turned around with a smirk and faced Reiko Kujo.

"…No more."

Seeing the hopeless situation, Reiko Kujo finally let out a long sigh.

But she still refused to give up, so she asked:

"Since you keep insisting that the defendant is not the murderer, then tell us—what is the truth of the matter?"

"Oh, the truth of the matter..."

At this moment, a victorious smile finally appeared on Keisuke Kumiko's face.

He took out a stack of papers from the table.

It was the fax he had received from Nakamichi Kazushi's house about the deceased, Yumi Horikoshi.

"From this fax, we can see that the deceased had an extremely unstable personality. What follows is merely my personal speculation."

Keisuke Kumiko displayed the faxes for everyone to see.

"The gun was brought by the deceased, not our client. The client followed the deceased to her room, where she once again threatened him. She pointed the gun at her own temple and warned him that if her demands were not met, she would commit suicide and frame him. At that moment, the gun suddenly fired…"

After a pause, Keisuke Kumiko smiled eerily.

"This was an accidental incident where someone attempted suicide to frame another person—but it ended up being real."

(End of Chapter)