Chapter 1012

At 6:17 a. m., the phone rang at the Special Investigation Headquarters of the Aichi Prefecture Police Headquarters regarding the missing Hirate Sarina case.

The officer who answered the phone sounded slightly fatigued and dazed.

After all, once the Japanese police launch a special investigation, they disregard the Civil Servant Law entirely; the first wave of searches by Japanese police often lasts a continuous twenty-four hours, after which shift rotations begin.

Everyone must understand, after all, the closer one gets to the time of the incident, the more precious the time becomes.

After picking up the receiver, the officer's expression shifted from the weary lethargy of duty to a frozen, intense focus within seconds.

He quickly jotted down a few lines, then hung up and turned to his colleague beside him, saying: "South District Waste Treatment Field. A young female corpse has been discovered. The reporter claims the characteristics highly match those of the missing person!!!"

"What the hell???"

The news spread like an electric current through the office area of the Special Investigation Headquarters!

Originally still drinking tea, eating rice balls, and just having finished shift changes, the officers simultaneously put down what they were holding; detectives stood up and put on their jackets, field personnel grabbed the car keys from the desk, and duty personnel and those left at the scene immediately called to notify superiors.

The heads of Investigation Section 1, Forensic Identification Division, and Organized Crime Control Department—each unit's leader received the same order within ten minutes: "Immediately deploy, South District Waste Treatment Field."

"Deploy! Deploy!"

"All personnel, full deployment!"

The hallway echoed with urgent footsteps and the sound of car doors closing; police lights on patrol cars flashed one after another in the police headquarters' parking lot, blue and red lights alternating in the dim morning light, Nagoya police didn't even bother worrying about disturbing residents, turning their sirens to maximum as over a dozen police cars formed a line and drove out the main gate, heading toward Nagoya's southern districts along streets still not fully awake in the early morning.

Black wheels pressed over the wet asphalt like a grand funeral procession!

In the vehicle heading to the scene, Inspector Nagase Ren sat in the front passenger seat, gripping the report just handed over by the duty officer.

He quickly read through the report; according to the dispatcher's inquiry, the reporter was a sorting worker at the waste treatment field, who discovered a human-shaped figure stuffed inside a dark garbage bag in the waste pile that morning, with fabric and rotting skin exposed on the surface.

Inspector Nagase Ren closed the report and shut his eyes.

He should have thought of this earlier.

No, he should have realized it sooner or later!!

Hirate disappeared without contact, without extortion—there's only one possible explanation!

The South District waste treatment field?

Why would she appear there?!

What was Hirate doing there?!

Inspector Nagase Ren understood why the search these past few days hadn't covered that waste treatment field.

Japanese police, or rather police worldwide searching for missing persons, always begin by checking areas around train stations, concentrated hotel and guesthouse zones, surveillance coverage of major parks, and main streets and public facilities within a few kilometers of the last known mobile phone shutdown location.

That is, so-called searches starting from "related persons" and "relationship networks."

No one would start searching from a waste treatment field far from here; when looking for missing persons, priority is always given to areas with high foot traffic and easy visibility.

Meanwhile, the South District Waste Treatment Field lies on the edge of Nagoya's urban area, surrounded by vast abandoned factories and undeveloped wasteland, with almost no pedestrians passing by under normal circumstances, no surveillance coverage, and the nearest public transit station nearly three kilometers away.

It's too remote, too unlike a place a young woman would voluntarily go to.

Even search dogs struggle to search such places; the complex odors and chaotic piles of the waste field itself make searching extremely difficult, and as a waste intake site, new garbage arrives daily, constantly changing the covering material.

These factors combined mean that unless there's a specific lead—such as confirming something was hauled away by a garbage truck—searching waste fields is a time-consuming, labor-intensive, and low-efficiency activity for police.

Until the garbage bag was opened by the sorter's hands.

Hirate, dead!

Inspector Nagase Ren still couldn't believe it to this day.

When Inspector Nagase Ren arrived at the scene, police tape had already cordoned off a large area. The South District Police Station's patrol cars arrived first, with several officers in dark blue uniforms standing at the waste field entrance directing traffic to keep approaching morning garbage trucks at bay.

As Inspector Nagase Ren stepped out of the vehicle, the smell of the wasteland hit him—mixed with the sour stench of rotting organic matter, industrial residue of machine oil and iron rust, and the tense, terrifying anxiety permeating the air.

Crossing the police tape, following a temporary dirt path trodden toward the enclosed central area, the ground beneath his feet was soft and damp, giving a slight sinking sensation when stepped on.

The moment the blue waterproof tarp was pulled open, that intense odor surged out unimpeded.

Inspector Nagase Ren's pupils contracted.

Holy shit, Giantism!

Hirate! It's really Hirate!

She had been taken out of the garbage bag and laid flat on the waterproof tarp.

Most of the surface attachments had been preliminarily cleaned by technicians, but the traces of decay remained shocking.

Her height was approximately 1.6 meters, her build slender, covered with a layer of unevenly distributed dark purple decay patterns, with parts of the skin already beginning to show a waxy sheen.

Her face was nearly unrecognizable, eye sockets sunken and dry, lips everted and blackened, the skin at the jaw having lost elasticity, slightly slack and drooping to one side, like a Converse canvas soaked in rainwater; those once delicate and vivid features had blurred over time into indistinguishable color blocks. The bruising on her neck was clearly visible, a dark band about three fingers wide encircling the entire neck, deeper in front, lighter behind, with the edge of the ligature mark showing obvious subcutaneous bleeding points.

This national idol's arms were covered in abrasions and bruises, some already dried into dark brown scabs, others still retaining a moist dark red hue.

On the backs of her hands were several fine, long scratches, as if scraped by fingernails or rough surfaces, with no obvious signs of healing. "Was it an accident, or…?" Inspector Nagase Ren swallowed a mouthful of saliva, quietly asking the forensic personnel.

Actually, everyone knows death like this couldn't possibly be an accident, but this question must be asked.

"Inspector…… perhaps, not just murdered, look here……" the forensic personnel tightly covered their nose, voice strained: "Here, you see…… it's…… how to put it……"

Inspector Nagase Ren's breath caught.

He followed the forensic personnel's finger, looking at the condition of the lower half of the body.

The pants of the Giantism corpse had been torn open at the waist, exposing the inner thighs and groin area covered with extensive, irregular bruises and tear injuries.

The shape and distribution of the wounds indicated a repetitive, non-one-time pattern; some bruises had already begun to show slight color changes, suggesting these injuries were not all inflicted at the same time.

The forensic technicians at the scene had not yet made a formal determination, but even police without any forensic medicine knowledge, after handling more cases, could tell from the distribution and position of those traces that it was a sustained, repeated process of violence, with repetitions and time intervals between them sufficient for the body to leave different stages of damage response.

A young corpse with decay not too severe but enough to make the face unrecognizable, a ligature mark; and those undeniable injuries on the lower half of the body.

Inspector Nagase Ren's gaze shifted from those injuries back to the already unrecognizable face, his lips twitching a few times, subconsciously wanting to analyze, yet daring not to analyze!

What would analyzing further turn into?

But at the scene, forensic personnel had already begun reporting.

A national idol around twenty years old, already devoid of vital signs for several days when discovered!

The decay level roughly matched the disappearance time; death should have occurred not long after disappearance, likely within twenty-four to forty-eight hours after the initial disappearance.

Initial observation of the ligature marks indicates the cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation, meaning she was strangled, and those……marks spread across the lower half of her body……should have been left before her death, though it's also possible some formed after death?

Nagase Ren dared not think further, but his professional training forced him to do so.

In other words, Hirate died after being subjected to successive sexual acts?!

Nagase Ren stepped back half a pace.

This was the first time, since becoming a Professional Group Superintendent, that he felt a chill spreading upward from the base of his spine at a crime scene.

This matter is developing in the direction everyone most hopes not to see and dares not imagine!

A National Idol, right here in Nagoya, died so horribly!

How will all the people view our Nagoya?

How will the world view our Japan?!

Most importantly, how will the entire outside world view our Nagoya Police?!?

More importantly, who handed this case to me?!?

He turned and walked a few steps outside the police tape, pulled out his mobile phone, and dialed the Section Chief's number.

After the call connected, he only said one sentence: "Section……Section Chief, we need to activate the highest-level emergency response. Identity can basically be confirmed, it's Hirate Sarina. Cause of death is strangulation. And……she……my meaning is……Hirate she……she was discovered by the forensic personnel at the scene……her body shows extensive traces of suffering successive X violations!"

"The matter……exceeds our expectations. This affair, all of Japan will be watching us!"

"Notify the National Police Agency, notify the Metropolitan Police Department, notify everyone who can be notified!!!"

"Incident occurred! Major incident occurred!"

"National Idol, horrible death confirmed!"