After the Undercover System Went Haywire, I Switched to Grinding Suspicion Points

Usuha Izuki thought for a moment: "Let's first investigate that person who was supposed to help sink the body but didn't show up."

Inspector Megure thought the same, but he was somewhat troubled: "But where do we start investigating? Didn't you say earlier that he might already be dead? Are you certain?"

"For this kind of thing, death is the most likely unexpected situation. Otherwise, they wouldn't suddenly stand someone up." Hagiwara Kenji also agreed with the view that the person might already be dead. "If it were due to a falling out between accomplices, even the slightest sign of discord would make them afraid to hand the body over to another person for disposal."

Inspector Megure sighed: "...Sigh, but people die in Tokyo every day... It's like finding a needle in a haystack."

He didn't mean to give up by saying this—encountering difficulties during case investigation was too normal. While thinking about where to break through, he spoke out loud, also to brainstorm together.

Hagiwara Kenji pondered: "Since last month's body was disposed of, that means there were no problems last month. If we only investigate deaths from last month until now, the scope could be smaller."

Usuha Izuki added from the side: "We can investigate whether anyone died from parasites."

Inspector Megure was first stunned, then suddenly understood: "Right! That lake discovered amoeba parasites last month. If the other party went into the lake to sink bodies last month without proper protection, leading to death from parasites eating their brain, that would indeed be an accident the mastermind couldn't anticipate."

Hagiwara Kenji was also energized: "Anyway, this is a direction worth investigating. Let's try investigating first."

If they were looking for people who died within a certain time period, the workload would be huge, requiring them to personally go through files to see if there were suspicious people. But to be specific to "people who died from parasites within the last month," it was very simple. Inspector Megure made one phone call, and within half an hour they found people meeting the criteria.

...But they had to go see the materials in person, or find a unit with a fax machine.

Usuha Izuki felt somewhat speechless, but this was the efficiency of Japanese civil servants. Inspector Megure and Hagiwara Kenji both looked accustomed to it without any objections, so he could only suppress his opinions.

Fortunately, after finally seeing the files, everyone thought they'd found the right person, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

"Fukasawa Yasuyuki." Inspector Megure frowned. "Previously he burned his parents and the family house. His sister was scared into mental illness by him and is hospitalized. He went to prison for several years and was just released last year..."

This profile looked very much like the kind of depraved person who would participate in such murder performances, but without evidence, just the fact that he died from parasites wasn't enough to prove it, so they had to investigate thoroughly.

Inspector Megure made the decision: "Let's investigate this Fukasawa Yasuyuki first—his sister, his workplace, colleagues... ask everyone!"

He felt very emotional inside—their progress was really like riding a rocket. Other teams might still be running around like headless flies looking for clues!

But just as they reached the car, preparing to continue their departure, Usuha Izuki suddenly spoke: "Inspector Megure, I want to act alone."

"..."

Both Inspector Megure and Hagiwara Kenji fell silent for a moment.

Hagiwara Kenji smiled and asked: "Do you have some issue with me as your partner?"

"No, I just want to ask someone who might have other understanding of this website." Usuha Izuki said. "Bringing police might not be very convenient."

Inspector Megure: "...Samukawa-kun, you are also police."

"I know, but the other party doesn't know, otherwise they wouldn't have introduced me to this website."

Usuha Izuki made excuses: "Now that this case is in the news, he might be more alert. Bringing strangers at this time might not get us any information... and I might not even be able to find him. Having Kenji follow me might just be wasting time, so it's better for him to stay with the Inspector."

Inspector Megure thought to himself—don't mention it, although Samukawa Shinryu always seemed to make people suspicious, he always spoke with reason and logic, convincingly.

He had wanted to ask earlier if they could find that person who gave Samukawa Shinryu the website to ask more about the situation, but felt that if they could ask, Samukawa Shinryu would have suggested it himself. He estimated it was a chance encounter and they couldn't find the person. Now Usuha Izuki was suggesting it himself.

Not mentioning it earlier—was he wanting to first confirm whether the direction of finding the person responsible for sinking bodies was correct? Now that this side was confirmed to be fine, he felt safe to leave, avoiding wasting time here... So responsible!

Inspector Megure was moved: "Although detectives generally operate in pairs... but since you don't plan to use your police identity, I'll make an exception and let you act alone."

The regulation requiring partners to act together was partly for mutual supervision, and partly because detective work was somewhat dangerous. If you encountered the perpetrator while conducting interviews and investigations, something might happen. With two people together, if the other party wanted to make a move, they'd have to think twice.

However, regulations were regulations—privately there were always people who liked to act alone, with partners helping to cover for them... though applying in front of a supervisor like this was rare.

—Fortunately, with Samukawa Shinryu out there, they needed to worry about others, not about him personally. Otherwise Inspector Megure wouldn't have agreed no matter what.

Although the supervisor had no objections, Hagiwara Kenji had some opinions. But since the supervisor had agreed, he didn't say anything. Solving the case was urgent now, and Little Shinryu... indeed didn't do things he wasn't confident about.

The stone Hagiwara Kenji had used to test Samukawa Shinryu in Hawaii—he found a chance to measure it and it was actually the same as what Samukawa Shinryu said. Although Samukawa Shinryu didn't give the third decimal place, even the second decimal place was accurate, with limited error.

From this, Hagiwara Kenji gained a concept of the degree of Samukawa Shinryu's so-called "confidence."

After Usuha Izuki left alone, Inspector Megure and Hagiwara Kenji didn't idle either, starting to drive to Fukasawa Yasuyuki's workplace to ask around.

When they stopped at a red light intersection, a very familiar car stopped next to them.

Hagiwara Kenji looked up and found it was the Mobile Investigation Unit's melon bread van.

Both cars were silently waiting for the green light. Officer Shima in the passenger seat happened to be able to communicate with Hagiwara Kenji in the driver's seat: "Hagiwara-san... ah, Inspector Megure is also here."

Inspector Megure was quite familiar with this former elite who had been demoted from Criminal Investigation Division One to the Mobile Investigation Unit, and didn't mind being greeted second: "How's your investigation going?"

Because this case was quite serious in nature and required more manpower, the Mobile Investigation Unit was also assisting in the investigation.

Officer Shima answered: "No leads so far."

He didn't ask back "How about you?" because reasonably speaking, they were assisting, and it wouldn't be proper to ask others to report to them—if they asked and the others couldn't answer conveniently, how awkward.

Ibuki Ai stretched his neck to look over here. After greeting everyone, he asked: "Isn't Samukawa-kun here?"

Hagiwara Kenji's mouth twitched: "He's acting alone."

Officer Shima's radar immediately activated, asking very alertly: "Acting alone? Why does he need to act alone? Did you agree to this?"

"...He said bringing police might not be very convenient."

Officer Shima was speechless: "Here he goes with that routine again."

Ibuki Ai also complained: "Always talking like he's not police himself."

Inspector Megure, having only met Samukawa Shinryu at crime scenes before, wasn't very familiar with some details: "Has he done this before?"

Officer Shima sighed: "...Last time he said this, it was to get information from the Sumiyoshi Group. Somehow he was mistaken for their young master, and along the way he confiscated all the Sumiyoshi Group members' guns. In the end, the only one who fired a gun was Samukawa."

Inspector Megure: "...So it was that case. I heard about it."

Ibuki Ai pondered: "Samukawa-kun won't fire his gun again this time, will he?"

Inspector Megure's forehead started breaking out in cold sweat: "It shouldn't be that bad, right? He already made that mistake once, wrote a self-criticism—surely he won't make the same mistake twice?"

Officer Shima: "............"

This silence made Inspector Megure feel even more uncertain: "Say something."

Officer Shima said through gritted teeth with a dark expression: "I helped write his self-criticism last time."

Inspector Megure: "............"

Ibuki Ai added: "Kokonoe also helped him write self-criticisms."

Hagiwara Kenji, who had been very quiet, also spoke up gloomily at this time: "I've also helped write them."

Inspector Megure: cat-cat-universe.jpg

The red light turned green. The Mobile Investigation people said goodbye and left. Hagiwara Kenji also stepped on the gas and continued forward.

It wasn't until they reached the next intersection that Inspector Megure finally found his voice again, asking a soul-searching question.

"I don't understand—why do you help him write self-criticisms? Doesn't he have hands?"

Hagiwara Kenji explained with a headache: "Because the self-criticisms he writes can't be used..."

Inspector Megure didn't believe it: "How unusable can they be?"

Hagiwara Kenji thought for a moment: "Probably what was originally just a mistake requiring reflection level, after his self-criticism was submitted, became grounds for dismissal level."

Inspector Megure was speechless for a moment, then sighed: "But doesn't this just prove that he hasn't reflected at all? If you help him write self-criticisms, then the self-criticism becomes meaningless."

Hagiwara Kenji stared straight ahead at the road, too embarrassed to look at Inspector Megure: "There are various reasons for this... it's not entirely for Little Shinryu. In my case, I couldn't really let Instructor Onizuka get angry enough to expel him, right? If that really happened, I'd worry about the instructor losing sleep."

Inspector Megure: "............"

He couldn't help imagining himself getting angry at Samukawa Shinryu, then announcing that he didn't need to come anymore, that they didn't need police like him... uh...

Just thinking about it made him feel so much pressure. He suddenly understood Hagiwara and the others.

This was also protecting the supervisors' mental health!

Meanwhile, Usuha Izuki, who had ditched his police colleagues and found an excuse to act alone, found a place and called Amuro Toru.

"Amuro, did you see the news?"

Usuha Izuki asked: "Should you ask Rum whether we still need to win over that Police Superintendent Kitami? This leverage seems unusable now."

Amuro Toru pretended he didn't know the case progress yet: "Maybe the police won't investigate him. Why don't you continue getting close to his son?"

It would be best to catch the Kitami father and son along with Usuha Izuki all at once—that would save him some trouble.

Usuha Izuki was outraged: "You look down on the Japanese police too much! How could they not solve such a simple case? Apologize to the police!"

Japanese Public Security agent Amuro Toru: "...??? I'm more curious why you trust the Japanese police so much!"

Is he going crazy again?! Speaking of which, since Usuha Izuki came over this time, he hadn't seen him go crazy. Amuro Toru had been somewhat on edge, but now he actually felt relieved... Had he been PUA'd?

Usuha Izuki: "Why should you be curious? Shouldn't you trust the Japanese police more?"