Chapter 135
Due to Tokyo's persistently high crime rate, the Metropolitan Police Criminal Affairs Department always gave an impression of being understaffed, with Criminal Investigation Division One being particularly so.
Therefore, after the fuss about criminals complaining about police entrapment around the end of last year had mostly died down, Division Chief Odagiri called Usuha Izuki and Hagiwara Kenji back to work.
Theoretically, veterans should guide newcomers to familiarize them with the environment, but...
Everyone in Criminal Investigation Division One had more or less interacted with Samukawa Shinryu during his internship with the Mobile Investigation Unit, witnessing his unreasonable deductive and observational abilities. When Chief Odagiri asked who was willing to partner with Samukawa Shinryu, everyone remained silent.
After all, no one wanted to lose face in front of a young person!
Imagine receiving an assignment to investigate, having thought of nothing yourself while the newcomer had already solved everything... Just thinking about it was painful.
Chief Odagiri had anticipated this situation, so he calmly arranged for Hagiwara Kenji to partner with Samukawa Shinryu, both under Inspector Megure, who would be responsible for their education and command.
For any difficulties or confusion, they should either ask others or overcome it themselves—this was also a form of training. Don't expect supervisors to consider everything for you; this wasn't kindergarten.
Hagiwara Kenji had no objections and was even quite pleased—he felt being able to closely monitor this friend on the edge of danger was a good arrangement.
Though Usuha Izuki felt having an acquaintance as partner might affect his performance, considering that with anyone else, given time, it would be similar anyway, he might as well accept Hagiwara Kenji and agreed by default.
Inspector Megure was quite familiar with both of them. Perhaps from frequent meetings, he'd developed some immunity to the "Black Screen Aura" and interacted very naturally: "Welcome, welcome. I won't say much more—please take care of each other."
Compared to others, Inspector Megure was very open-minded. As long as cases got solved, who cared who solved them? Weren't they all Division One people?
When Kudo Yusaku was still domestic, he often consulted him. Newspapers constantly criticized Japanese police as useless, but he didn't mind. Now at least the case-solvers were his own people! What more could he want?
This workplace atmosphere was excellent, and Hagiwara Kenji was also happy their supervisor had this kind of personality.
Otherwise, if they'd gotten someone harsh, or who discriminated and looked down on young people while being jealous of their abilities, constantly causing trouble behind the scenes... he'd have to worry about preventing Little Shinryu from becoming disappointed in police.
"We'll be counting on your guidance, Inspector Megure."
"Hahaha!" Inspector Megure laughed heartily. "Ask me anything you don't understand. While we're not busy yet, get familiar with our division early."
Less than half an hour after Inspector Megure said this, they received an assignment.
"The Mobile Investigation Unit discovered a strange corpse near Mizumoto Park in Katsushika Ward." Inspector Megure led them rushing to the destination. "The body was completely naked, covered in wounds, abdomen cut open, fatal wound to the throat, wrapped in blue plastic film, tied with rope, and placed near a water tank..."
Hagiwara Kenji, seeing Inspector Megure seemingly about to head for the driver's seat, quickly said: "I'll drive. Little Shinryu, sit beside me."
Usuha Izuki agreed.
Inspector Megure breathed a huge sigh of relief and changed direction toward the back seat without objection: "Alright, drive safely."
Sigh, at times like this he should let subordinates drive, or others might gossip if they saw, but he was just afraid of asking "who wants to drive?" and having Samukawa Shinryu volunteer... better to do it himself...
This had nothing to do with whether he trusted Samukawa Shinryu—he just felt having Samukawa Shinryu drive while he sat in back would create an uneasy panic... But having Hagiwara Kenji drive while he and Samukawa Shinryu both sat in back would be another level of pressure.
But now! Hagiwara Kenji not only volunteered to drive but also called Samukawa Shinryu to the passenger seat, giving him the entire back row!
Inspector Megure almost shed tears of gratitude.
It had to be said, Chief Odagiri's decision to partner Hagiwara Kenji with Samukawa Shinryu was incredibly wise!
Who else could persuade Samukawa Shinryu where to sit? Otherwise he might not even make a sound, ending up driving himself with another person in passenger seat and Samukawa Shinryu watching menacingly from behind—too beautiful a scene to imagine.
Thank you, Chief Odagiri! Thank you, Hagiwara Kenji!
Since Division One received an emergency report from the Mobile Investigation Unit, the situation wasn't clear enough, so there wasn't much more intelligence to discuss in the car—they'd have to see at the scene.
Inspector Megure took the time to explain on-site precautions to them.
Especially to Usuha Izuki, Inspector Megure instructed: "Remember to bring your armband!"
Police had uniforms, but except for patrol officers who frequently dealt with citizens, other police mostly wore them for ID photos or important meetings. Usually they just wore suits with rank badges on the left chest.
Originally thinking Samukawa Shinryu was easily misunderstood, Hagiwara Kenji had wanted to encourage daily uniform wear, but Usuha Izuki asked back: "Didn't you see me in uniform at Police Academy?"
Hagiwara Kenji fell silent.
Maybe because they'd graduated, he hadn't seen Samukawa Shinryu in uniform for months and couldn't react immediately. Now reminded and recalling... how could someone wear a police uniform like yakuza cosplay, so incongruous...
Finally he said to stick with regular suits—don't bother, there were still badges anyway.
The armband Inspector Megure mentioned was for distinguishing identity at crime scenes, more conspicuous than badges. Inspector Megure hoped the on-duty officers would have better eyesight and avoid complications!
Getting more anxious, Inspector Megure had Usuha Izuki pin the "Criminal Investigation Division One" armband to his sleeve in the car.
Usuha Izuki: "............"
Hagiwara Kenji chuckled: "Little Shinryu, listen to the Inspector and put it on quickly. You know how easily you're misunderstood."
Inspector Megure in the back seat couldn't help looking at Hagiwara Kenji's... back of his head with reverent eyes.
Compared to Samukawa Shinryu whom he often met at crime scenes, he actually wasn't very familiar with Hagiwara Kenji—just met a few times, knew they were friends with a good relationship. When he saw Hagiwara Kenji directly arranging where Samukawa Shinryu should sit earlier, he'd already been amazed once at how solid their friendship was, but now seeing Hagiwara Kenji could actually joke directly about Samukawa Shinryu, he truly hadn't expected this.
Good, very good. In future, if anything came up, he could approach Hagiwara Kenji first, then have Hagiwara Kenji relay to Samukawa Shinryu!
The destination was quite far from the Metropolitan Police, but Hagiwara Kenji had the ability to achieve maximum police car speed without violating traffic rules. Despite leaving at roughly the same time, he arrived more than ten minutes ahead of other teams.
As soon as Usuha Izuki got out, he heard a familiar "Ah" sound.
Immediately followed by a call he'd heard for two months: "Samukawa-kun! How nice to meet again so soon!"
Looking up, he found his former Mobile Investigation Unit senior Ibuki Ai enthusiastically waving at him, while Officer Shima beside him covered his face for some reason.
Inspector Megure coughed: "So it's an acquaintance from Fourth Mobile Investigation. Go understand the situation first."
This showed the advantage of connections—perfect coordination. As Usuha Izuki approached the barrier tape, Ibuki Ai directly helped lift it for him to enter, while Officer Shima stopped questioning patrol officers and pointed to Usuha Izuki's armband.
The patrol officer looked at the armband, then at the obviously police vehicle, then at how the Mobile Investigation Unit people all seemed to know him... only then reluctantly believed this guy who didn't look like police was actually police.
And from Division One too—though he looked more suited for Organized Crime Countermeasures, especially undercover work...
Ibuki Ai walked beside Usuha Izuki saying: "You really suit Division One."
Arriving by Metropolitan Police car was more convincing than sitting in a melon bread van, and being surrounded by suited colleagues with armbands was more proof of police identity than just him and Shima in plain clothes.
Even optimistic, cheerful, and carefree Ibuki Ai didn't want to recall those two months of Samukawa Shinryu's Mobile Investigation Unit internship and how many times they'd been mistakenly implicated...
Officer Shima interrupted the private chat: "Let's talk business—the body's over here."
Usuha Izuki saw the corpse. Officer Shima showed him the autopsy report while Ibuki Ai explained from the side.
"Seems like they suffered a lot before death. Look, so much glass in the wounds."
Initially Usuha Izuki thought it was just an ordinary case, but seeing the body, he suddenly realized this was "Strawberry Night"—the murder website Kitami Hitoshi ran.
After Kitami Hitoshi gave him the website, he'd not only sent it to Amuro Toru but logged in himself, roughly understanding the process and victims' final state, which matched this corpse.
Strange, was body disposal this careless? How had they avoided discovery before?
Usuha Izuki's mind began racing.
Inspector Megure, having waited for the parking Hagiwara Kenji, arrived slower and couldn't help frowning upon seeing the body: "Really... what was the perpetrator..."
Hagiwara Kenji, formerly from bomb disposal, rarely saw corpses but forced himself to observe carefully despite discomfort: "Why was the stomach cut open? Was there something inside?"
Officer Shima answered: "Nothing, just cut open. Since it was previously wrapped in cloth, we can confirm nothing fell out halfway—at least not since the body was discovered."
"So this is the perpetrator's habit? Or trying to express something?" Inspector Megure wracked his brains. "Jack the Ripper seemed to also—"
"No, it has nothing to do with any of that."
Samukawa Shinryu, who'd been reading the autopsy report, suddenly spoke as if clearly understanding the perpetrator's thinking, his tone certain.
"This was done to prevent the body from floating due to decomposition gases after sinking. Since he placed it here, the sinking location should be this nearby lake. Someone was responsible for transporting the body, someone for taking a boat to dump it in the lake center. We should immediately send divers—there should be more bodies below."
Complete silence.
Not only the local police station people were silent, even his acquaintances fell silent together.
The dark-haired, red-eyed youth looked up coldly, frowning slightly: "Is there a problem?"
Inspector Megure hesitated: "...A bit..."
Ibuki Ai directly asked: "How did you immediately connect all this from one wound?"
Nearby officers who heard the commotion couldn't help nodding silently.
Exactly! Rattling off all this analysis—you understand the perpetrator's thinking way too well!
Samukawa Shinryu seemed unable to understand the question, reluctantly explaining.
"This is waterside, there's a body here—normal people would immediately think of the giant view phenomenon corpses produce when sunk in water. To avoid giant view phenomenon, you must prevent corpse miasma—cutting a hole is the most convenient method. Having already transported here and even processed the body to this extent, yet not finishing, just placing it somewhere easily discovered, indicates division of labor with accomplices... These are all easy to think of, right?"
Others: ".................."
Sorry we're not normal people.
His analysis made the logical chain seem very clear, but wasn't the hardest part of police work precisely how to connect logical chains?! Don't make it sound so easy!
And being able to immediately connect limited clues to this extent in such short time...
Several patrol officers suddenly recalled recent news about criminals claiming police wrote scripts for crimes then solved them themselves...
Hahaha, impossible—that was already debunked!
Just as patrol officers convinced themselves, someone from Mobile Investigation asked: "Speaking of which, I suddenly remembered—the police officer accused by criminals of self-direction in the news, wasn't that you?"
Samukawa Shinryu was silent briefly: "...It was me."
Hagiwara Kenji quickly explained: "That was the criminal's misunderstanding. The person who provided the crime plan hasn't been caught..."
Patrol officers: "............"
—Suddenly understanding that criminal—this guy's performance really looked like he'd read a script! Not suspecting would be impossible