Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner-Chapter 782 - 477: Action!

"Isn’t this wrong? Didn’t you say variety shows are also art? Didn’t you say art cannot be defiled? Where’s your integrity as an independent creator?"

The director, holding a megaphone, stood behind the camera, watching Fushimi Roku spitting criticisms at him and the script written by his editor.

He thought to himself, it’s tough to earn money and even harder to stomach nonsense these days; there’s always some outsider pointing fingers. Everyone wants to be on TV and be in the limelight, but who will play the background characters? Who will complement the stars?

Stepping back a mile, even playing a villain is a skill, right? With Minamoto Tamako’s looks, she can’t even muster the harshness to insult someone, how could she possibly portray the intensity of a villain?

"There’s no other way, we can’t risk the show being taken off air, can we?" the director tried to reason with Fushimi Roku, "Besides, Officer Yuan is not suitable to play a bad guy..."

"So you’re saying I’m suitable?" Fushimi Roku pointed at his nose, feeling like he should employ some traditional Japanese arts to make the production team obedient.

As a criminal police officer at the Police Department, how could he not master the art of tongue-playing?

Without waiting for the director’s reply, Fushimi Roku grabbed the director’s collar and shouted with tongue snaps ’Who dares to look down on me’, ’Do I look like a villain?’, asserting a tough attitude.

Of course, Fushimi Roku isn’t just good at scolding; after the scolding, he would offer a sweet date. He put his arm around the director’s shoulder and continued, "Don’t worry, I’ll talk to the Director of Police for you. We agreed to participate not just for the filming but for the investigation. If we catch the culprit afterward, your TV station can benefit a bit too."

The director, who had a goatee, looked sideways with an expression of some helplessness.

A few days ago, Fushimi Roku tried every way to squeeze into the show, and now he’s saying he agreed to participate for the investigation...

Who would believe this?

Fushimi Roku was telling the truth; he was indeed fishing for enforcement for the sake of 50 million yen. To ensure the plan is foolproof, he insisted on having Minamoto Tamako play the villain role... It had nothing to do with vanity, at least he thought so.

With a combination of carrot and stick, the director reluctantly agreed:

"Alright, let’s swap the scripts first and see how the shooting goes. If the effect isn’t good then..."

Fushimi Roku interrupted, "The effect will absolutely be good, trust me, believe in my acting skills... No, I’m performing my true self; in reality, I’m just such an upright detective."

The director held back for a while and finally uttered an ’oh’.

He turned to call the assistant director, whispered a few instructions, and then loudly gathered the crew, signaling everyone to take their positions and prepare to shoot.

The first scene was indoors, with two special guests sitting on the studio sofa, being interviewed by the host, chatting about interesting things, casual enough.

Fushimi Roku and Minamoto Tamako didn’t need to memorize lines; there was a teleprompter behind the camera. The two sat on the sofa, the host sorted their manuscript and tested the microphone for normalcy.

Minamoto Tamako was extremely nervous; her heart was pounding, surrounded by cameras all around, everyone was watching her closely. She was afraid of embarrassing herself and ruining the shoot.

Indeed, watching TV shows and acting in them are two different things; the pressure of performing live is really intense...

The director inquired one by one to the key technical departments; the lighting department confirmed the angle of main, secondary, and background lights, responding "Lighting OK"; the sound department checked microphone signals and volume, responding "Recording ready, levels normal"; the camera department confirmed lens focus, composition, and machine stability, responding "Camera ready, focus aligned"...

Finally, the director raised the megaphone, casually shouted "Actors adjust your states, get ready for action", then waved a hand:

"Action!"

The host immediately donned a smile, announcing the opening lines to the camera, "Welcome to ’Chasing Truth: Special Edition’! Tonight, we will confront the most genuine darkness of the Police Department—"

Lights flickered and flashed, white mist sprayed around the filming site, the camera rapidly switched, giving a close-up shot of Fushimi Roku and Minamoto Tamako.

Familiar formula, familiar tones, Japanese variety shows always bear this special mix of middle-school temperament and exaggerated humor.

Minamoto Tamako was both nervous and awkward, unsure what expression to make, she could only keep a straight face, sitting properly, arming herself with a ’lady’s sitting posture’ of a noble young lady.

Fushimi Roku, on the other hand, was not stage-frightened, waving towards the camera with a sunny boy smile.

He’s a courtroom lawyer, meant to speak nonsense and battle verbally in front of a lot of people; how could a stage-frightened lawyer be a good lawyer?

The host asked them to introduce themselves, Fushimi Roku looked at the teleprompter and began, "Hello everyone, I am Fushimi Roku, the head detective of the Police Department’s Investigation Division One."

Out and about, identities were self-assigned. Anyway, the media wasn’t developed yet, no search engines were around, so he slightly beautified his position without a big issue.

Minamoto Tamako was very surprised; she secretly glanced at Fushimi Roku. This guy should be a criminal police officer at Sugamo Police Station, right? When did he become an elite detective in the Investigation Division One?

That wasn’t the end, Fushimi Roku crossed his fingers, lifted one leg over another, displaying the standard old-money sitting posture, looking like a corporate capitalist being interviewed by news media: "Over the past ten years, I have personally sent 327 criminals to prison..." While saying this, he held up three fingers.

Minamoto Tamako widened her eyes completely, turned fully towards him, with a face of having something to say but stopping, staring at Fushimi Roku’s side face as he continued talking.