Aibou TV Season 5 Episode 4 - Senmitsu(せんみつ)

Subtitle: Senmitsu(せんみつ)

 Senmitsu(thousand three in Japanese) means a habitual liar - only three out of a thousand things a senmitsu says are true. Sōji Makihara(槇原 惣司) is a small time burglar and a veteran liar. He came to Tokyo from the same area of Japan as Lieutenant Shinsuke Miura(三浦 信輔) who has unsuccessfully tried to set him on the right path.

When Makihara is caught this time, he oddly admits to the crime - he says that he broke into a summerhouse. Knowing Makihara's propensity to lie, Lieutenant Miura is suspicious and to find out why, he enlists help from the Tokumeigakari pair. They go down to the Shokatsu to question Makihara, who comes up with reasonable answers to every question. Inspector Ukyō, sharp as ever, realizes that Makihara is including a few lies in his answers. Why is this habitual liar suddenly telling (mostly) truths?

1.2 billion yen(12億円 12 Oku-en) worth of jewelry is stolen from a jewelry store in Ginza(銀座) at the start of this story.

Characters appearing/mentioned in the story

Sōji Makihara(槇原 惣司) - Seasoned burglar and a veteran liar. He and  Lieutenant Shinsuke Miura(三浦 信輔) grew up in the same poor town in Gifu(岐阜) prefecture. He once told the Lieutenant that he is going to earn one hundred million yen(一億円 Ichiokuen), go back home, and dig a hot spring to attract tourists to the town.

He broke in to a villa in Okutama(奥多摩) around 2:05 AM and was arrested around 2:20 AM last night(11/7)  for breaking in and entering, and attempted robbery. For some reason, he accepted all responsibilities for his crime. After arriving at the Shokatsu's interrogation room, Inspector Ukyō questions Makihara.

Inspector Ukyō first asks why Makihara broke into a villa, to which he answers that he thought that during the off-season, the chance of running into people in the house are small and the likelihood that the crime won't go noticed for a while also very good. The inspector then wonders, although the owners are less likely to be there during the off-season, it's also unlikely that they would leave items of great value in the villas while they're not there. Makihara then reveals that one of his former cellmates Uematsu(上松) found a large amount of cash, most likely money hidden from the government, in a villa Uematsu broke into. Makihara was hoping to repeat Uematsu's success. Inspector Ukyō then says that the government is likely to check the villa for any assets as well, to which Makihara replies that the villa must have been registered under someone else's name so that the government won't check it for hidden assets.

Next, Inspector Ukyō asked why Makihara chose that particular villa out of the many in the area to break into. Makihara then reveals that he went to a small Shinto shrine near his house, Tsurukawa inari(鶴川稲荷), and the paper fortune he pulled there revealed that his lucky numbers were 2 and 8. Makihara broke into that particular villa since the house number read 28.

When Inspector Ukyō tells Makihara that it feels like Makihara was deliberately trying to be arrested and go to jail, Makihara says that after being caught, he decided that it would be better off if he were in jail, since he hadn't successfully stolen much recently. Once he is jailed, he would be fed 3 square meals which he believed was better off than becoming homeless. However, Inspector Ukyō tells Makihara that since he is a repeat offender, he most likely will have to stay in jail for 3 to 5 years. Since Makihara is a professional thief, he should have known that.

Before Inspector Ukyo started questioning him, he kept on asking if he could call his lover since she was pregnant with their child. However, the police who checked determined that she is not pregnant.

Yoshihiro Ōno(大野義弘) - Owner of the villa Sōji Makihara(槇原 惣司) broke into. His house is protected by the  Okutama Guard Security Company(奥多摩警備保障 Okutama keibi hoshō).

Uematsu(上松) - Fellow inmate Sōji Makihara(槇原 惣司) supposedly met while he was incarcerated in Kosuge(小菅). He told Makihara a story about finding some illegal/hidden money of approximately 5 million yen(５千万円 5 Sen man-en) in cash in a villa during the off season.

Mitsuko Shinoda(篠田 美津子) - Proprietress of the bar Chateau(シャトー Shatō) who has a history with Sōji Makihara(槇原 惣司). They're not married nor do they live together. Makihara called her numerous time in the 15 minutes between 2:05 to 2:20 AM on 11/7, the morning when he broke into the villa.

Yukio Motowaki(本脇 幸生) - 37 year old man whose badly beaten body was found in the industrial waste field. He worked at Hiramori brewery (平森酒造 Hiramori shuzō), but was fired half an year ago due to bad behavior. He was identified as one of the men who stole the 1.2 billion yen(12億円 12 Oku-en) worth of jewelry.

Locations

Tea Room Aunties(アンティーズ Antīzu) - Cafe where Miwako waited for Sergeant Kaoru this episode. Miwako used to eat here and also borrow the fax machine and the restroom. The store closes at 9 PM. During the off-season, truck drivers stop by while taking a break.

nameless industrial waste field(産廃場 sanpai-jō) - This place became famous for illegally dumping industrial waste and was shut down. Since then, almost no one comes to this place. Miwako and Sergeant Kaoru come here to look for anything out of the ordinary. Miwako finds the body of a badly beaten man about 20-30 years of age who died from a skull fracture. The man was killed around 36 hours before he was discovered, making his time of death around 1AM on the 7th of the month. Hair and DNA samples taken from this site matched samples taken from the jewelry heist presented at the beginning of the episode.

Hiramori shuzō(平森酒造) - Hiramori brewery, famous for their whiskey. Truck drivers from the brewery visit the Tea Room Aunties from time to time. They built a new warehouse last year where they're keeping barrels of whiskey. These barrels are scheduled to be sold to buyers/investors, and will be ready for consumption in 2011, five years later. (This episode originally aired and the story supposed to take place in 2006.) Almost no one will be entering the warehouse during that time. The brewery just started accepting reservations for the most recent batch of barrels. They also have another warehouse adjacent to this one where they keep several dozen expensive (worth one million yen(１００万円 hyaku-man en)) imported vintage wine bottles.