The Prosecutor

Chapter I

She could do nothing but stare as the dark-suited man in front of her read off a crumpled piece of paper, detailing the reasons why she murdered her entire family. The man's voice simply bounced off the empty space that was her skull, barely making any impact. The paper had been torn out of a notebook, and quickly too, judging by the jagged side of the page, as well some tears caused by careless ripping. More unsettling, the paper was stained with red at the edges. Blood. From the murder scene where this very note was found. She continued to stare dumbly as the man read the note in heavily accented Japanese, even mispronouncing a few words.

"All you bastards ever talked about was her. Never once you mentioned me, my achievements, anything. It was always Mika. For you, I was never good enough. Whenever she was in the room, I never existed. I hate you, I hate you all for this. Whoever catches me, I'll have them know that I regret not a single thing, massacring you all worthless bastards was the best thing I could do, and your deaths will be the best things that happened to be all my life. Goodbye, Mika, my pretentious sister and my parents, you worthless bastards. Signed, Sae Kanashiro."

The man looked up. *"  你能说什么呢？"

Sae only understood Japanese and English, and could only stare blankly. The man seemed not to be bothered, and made his exit. She still could not understand why she had been suddenly accused of a crime out of the blue. Outside of the interrogation room, she could hear two voices speaking in Mandarin through an open door. **

"  她跟本都没反应，你认为你可以吗？"

"  她是日本人，怎么听得懂你在说什么呢？但我知道她有在美国读过大学，我可以跟她讲英文。"

"  咦？你几时会讲英文啦？"

"  我是在英国读法侓的。"

"  好啦，凶手就交给你了。"

A young man, probably around her age entered the room. Despite having such a young-looking face, he exuded an air of experience that was years beyond. Sae scrutinised the man, wary of making a move. The young man smiled, but it didn't do anything to ease her nerves. The man sat down across from her and laced his fingers, as if the interrogation room was his own office.

"You are Sae Kanashiro, yes?" He spoke smoothly in surprisingly perfect English.

Taken aback, Sae answered. "Yes."

"My name is Prosecutor Wang Xi Lun. I will be interrogating you on the murder of your parents and sister."

"I... I don't understand. I clearly didn't commit the murder, so why are they holding me here? And in China? I thought the case was only known in Japan."

For a moment, Xi Lun's eyes seemed to flash with something. However, it was gone as soon as it came, and Sae simply dismissed it as her imagination.

"The handwriting on the note found at the crime scene was a match for yours when it was compared to a list found among your belongings. According to the note, you seem to have personal reasons for killing your family. As for why our officers here know about your case..." He paused before speaking again. "We'll get back to that later."

"If you have all the proof you need, then why am I not on trial yet? Why are you still interrogating me?"

"They tried to get you to sign a confession, no? But from what I heard, you wouldn't even respond."

"I couldn't read the Mandarin. Or understand it."

"So the words have to come straight from your mouth."

"But I didn't... I didn't kill them."

Sae's eyes were welling up with tears at how he put it so simply. He might have not directly accused her of killing her family, but the words stung all the same. She couldn't have done it, she knew. But when proof was right in front of everybody's eyes, there was no way to convince them otherwise. She was the culprit, plain and simple. Xi Lun noticed her teary eyes and his softened his expression a bit.

"I know you believe yourself to be innocent, but this is standard procedure, alright?"

Sae nodded, too upset to say anything.

"In the meantime, try not to get too distressed while I'm interrogating you, alright?"

Sae nodded again. Xi Lun smiled at her encouragingly and went back to his papers. "Alright, the interrogation starts now. We don't have much time, so better make this quick."

He asked some standard questions, such as her relationships with her parents and sister. She answered each one shortly, afraid of giving away something that could be used against her. Perhaps this prosecutor was simply trying to get her to warm up to him, then use her words against her in court. However, Sae felt that there was something different about Xi Lun. He didn't seem to be in any rush, despite warning her that they were short on time. He was relaxed and friendly, asking the probing questions with a conversational tone.
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Hey, Edna here! Looks like I'm back to writing normal fiction again. Now, this is just a small side project. I'll be back to the fanfiction once this story is over. Also, for those who want to know what all that Mandarin was about:

* What can you say?

** "She's not responding at all, do you think you can?"

"She's Japanese, how can she understand what you're saying? However, I do know that she attended university in America, I can talk to her in English."

"Yi? Since when do you speak English?"

"I studied Law in England."

"Alright, then the culprit's in your hands."