Akira Murase (村瀬 晃, Murase Akira) is a character featured in Judgment. He is a lieutenant of the Kyorei Clan.
Profile[]
Appearance[]
Murase has black hair in a short punch perm hairstyle and a moustache. He has an average build.
Attire[]
Murase wears a double breasted peaked lapel dark purple suit over a yellow and black baroque patterned dress shirt with the collar over his lapels, a gold chain necklace, brown leather oxfords, and a Kyorei Clan crest lapel pin.
Personality[]
Murase is a hotheaded man, who is quick to turn to violence when he's disrespected or threatened. However, he's also a very cordial man to people he considers friends; as shown by his treatment of Yagami and Kaito like honored guests when they start helping the Kyorei Clan's financial backer, Shigeru Kajihira; going so far as to give Kaito a back massage to make up for attacking him and Yagami on the street during the investigation of Toshiro Kume's murder.
Murase also seems to be genuinely concerned for the well-being of his subordinates in the Kyorei Clan. When Kume gets violently dragged into Club Amour by Kyohei Hamura and his thugs, Murase rushes to get back-up from his own Clan and then leads an attack party to rescue his kidnapped bodyguard. He also makes Takayuki Yagami and Masaharu Kaito promise to catch Kume's true killer after he's convinced that Hamura didn't actually kill him.
Background[]
In 2017, the Kyorei Clan started efforts to expand into Tokyo and secure control of the area surrounding the Advanced Drug Development Center, since their organization's primary financial backer; Shigeru Kajihira, was investing into re-developing the area into a tourist resort district, anticipating the ADDC's imminent shutdown by the government. Kajihira wanted the Kyorei to control the area surrounding the ADDC so that other yakuza groups wouldn't extort him for protection once he controlled the businesses in the neighborhood.
In service of Kajihira's goals, Kyorei Captain Satoshi Shioya led a force of dozens of his clan's men to establish control over said territory and muscle in on business held by smaller Tojo Clan families; primarily the Matsugane Family. Lieutenant Murase was Captain Shioya's second-in-command during this operation, running several Kyorei businesses out of his office in the KJ Art building.
Involvement[]
Judgment[]
By 2018, the Kyorei Clan had established a firm foothold in Tokyo by stealing Matsugane businesses in and around Kamurocho. However, this success came at a cost, as frequent brawls occurred between the Kyorei and the Matsugane. On top of that, a mysterious serial killer started targeting Kyorei Clan yakuza; kidnapping them off the street and killing them by gouging out their eyes before dumping them in back alleys.
In December 2018, Murase is involved in one of these brawls when he and his bodyguard; Toshiro Kume, run into Matsugane Captain Kyohei Hamura and his men outside of Club Amour. The Kyorei pair are outnumbered and are easily beaten, prompting them to try to flee. While Murase succeeds in escaping, Kume is caught and dragged back into the club for a beating. Murase would then gather several more of his men and return to Club Amour one hour later to rescue Kume, but by that point neither Kume nor Hamura were there. Kume's body would be found the next day in an alley, with his eyes poked out. Murase would then inform the police about Hamura's kidnapping of Kume on the night of his murder and this led to the Matsugane Captain's arrest on murder charges.
After the Yagami Detective Agency is hired to investigate the case in aid of Captain Hamura's court defense, Takayuki Yagami sneaks into Murase's office in the KJ Art building to question the Lieutenant about the night of the murder. Upon seeing the intruder, Murase's immediate response is to attack Yagami with a nearby wooden sword, but he is unable to best the interloper. Subsequently, Yagami forces Murase into telling him about what happened on the night of the fight from his perspective.
Using the information Murase provided, along with Hamura's vague description of drunken doings after his fight with Kume, Yagami and his partner Masaharu Kaito manage to track down a witness who could corroborate Hamura's alibi, along with security camera footage showing Hamura was alone and away from the murder scene at the time of death. However, while going to retrieve said security footage from the camera's owner, Yagami and Kaito are attacked by Murase and his men, who seek revenge for the Detective's previous attack on the Lieutenant. Despite having a numerical advantage on the pair, the Kyorei men are beaten in battle.
When Hamura's trial date arrives, Murase attempts to sabotage his defence by kidnapping the sister of the witness who could corroborate Hamura's whereabouts at the time of the murder. The witness; a host named Seiya, rescinds his testimony before the court, much to the surprise of Yagami and Hamura's legal team from the Genda Law Office. After Seiya tells the team about his sister's kidnapping, Yagami and Kaito head out to rescue her while Hamura's lawyers stall for time. The detectives go to the KJ Art building and force their way past several Kyorei Clan men to the room where Murase is keeping Seiya's sister. While initially resistant, Yagami convinces Murase to release the kidnapped girl by asserting that, since Seiya's testimony proves Hamura can't be the killer, then the real killer would go free if Hamura is convicted. After releasing the hostage, Murase makes Yagami promise to find Kume's true killer.
Later on, while searching for leads on their investigation into the eye-gouging serial killer (whom they've dubbed "the Mole"), Yagami and Kaito spy on the Kyorei Clan once more using their drone. However, they are caught in the act by Murase and Captain Shioya. The pair are saved from Shioya's wrath by the intervention of Fumiya Sugiura.
Eventually, the detectives from the Yagami Agency form an uneasy alliance with the Kyorei Clan after being hired by Chairman Kajihira to investigate the death of his man inside the ADDC, Toru Hashiki. When the Matsugane Family sends an assassin after the pair for their investigation into Captain Hamura's secrets, the detectives seek protection in the Kyorei base in Cabaret Honmauren. While staying at the Cabaret, Murase gives Kaito a back massage to apologize for his rough treatment of him prior to their alliance.
After Yagami and Patriarch Mitsugu Matsugane kidnap Hamura and bring him to Cabaret Honmauren for interrogation, Murase and his men stand guard at the cabaret's entrance to fight off any attempts by Hamura's henchmen to rescue him. Unfortunately for Murase, Hamura's bodyguard Kengo manages to sneak into the building regardless and sets the place on fire. Taking advantage of the distraction, Matsugane Lieutenant Kojiro Ozaki ambushes Murase and forces him to wear a bomb vest. Ozaki tells Murase to go get Captain Shioya to give up Hamura in exchange for not killing him with the bomb; but as soon as Murase goes upstairs to where Shioya was waiting, Ozaki triggered the bomb anyway, killing Murase.
Fighting Style[]
Murase is an extremely unskilled fighter, both armed and unarmed.
Unarmed[]
His unarmed moveset consists of a main combo of a right swing punch, a left swing punch and a right push kick, another combo of a left knee and a right knee which he may follow up with a right shoulder thrust, and a left push kick. He does not have a Deadly Attack in this moveset.
Sword[]
His sword moveset consists of a main combo of a left outward swing, an overhead swing, a right push kick, an overhead swing and a right outward swing (last two hits only in 2nd fight), another combo of a right kick, a left outward swing and a left outward swing, yet another combo of a low sweeping right reverse kick and a reverse swing (only in 2nd fight), a right stab (only in 2nd fight), and a grab where he stabs Yagami's face.
His Deadly Attack has him wave his sword and then do four wild overhead swings. In his 2nd fight, he can follow this up with a right roundhouse kick and a final stab.
His sword moveset is reused by Masao Igarashi in Lost Judgment: The Kaito Files.
Murase's aura is crimson red.
Gallery[]
