Chapter 102: Uesugi Muneyuki, Crushing Completely

"Thank you for your hard work!"

Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters, smoking room.

A large group of detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department's Investigation Division 1 were huddled inside, puffing away, one after another, enjoying themselves immensely.

The income in the police profession is quite high compared to the average salaryman, second only to financial, legal, and medical professionals, but the pressure is also immense; especially for those in criminal investigation who have to participate in manhunts, most have a smoking habit to some degree.

A local Chiba Prefectural Police Patrol Sergeant ran in, about twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, not yet thirty, carrying two large plastic bags; after entering, he nodded and bowed to the big shots from the main headquarters, his sycophantic expression, his humble demeanor, and his soft-spoken, low-posture attitude completely unworthy of the Patrol Sergeant badge and the Chiba Prefectural Police emblem he wore.

As mentioned previously, the position of Patrol Sergeant is an unofficial rank, intended as a consolation for those at the lowest police rank of Patrol Officer who have been unable to receive a promotion for many years; generally speaking, if a Patrol Officer cannot be promoted for 5 years, they can be elevated to Patrol Sergeant, and if they are still a Patrol Officer after 10 years, they can be automatically promoted to Patrol Sergeant.

It is no wonder this Patrol Sergeant was so humble; among those present were Career Track Police Inspectors from the Metropolitan Police Department who were younger than him, and elite Non-Career Track backbone members of Investigation Division 1 who had handled over three hundred cases in twenty years—none of whom a local branch could afford to provoke.

As for the big shots from the Metropolitan Police Department in the smoking room, they accepted the service from the local branch quite naturally.

In fact, Japan, South Korea, and other countries are the same; as regions with a very strong Confucian cultural influence, bureaucrats naturally have their own arrogant style, but in a place like Japan, supervision and complaints are very strict, and there are a large number of local autonomous bodies where city councilors, prefectural councilors, and ward councilors must all be directly elected, so from the grassroots up to the high-level officials, it always gives people an impression of being humble, ingratiating, and greeting others with a smiling face.

But in reality, they are just afraid of complaints and afraid of losing votes.

Once truly inside the system, for these detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department, those sitting in offices at the National Police Agency are the heavenly officials, but to the local branches, these people from the main headquarters are also absolute heavenly officials, and each one of them puts on a full display of majestic airs.

The famous enlightenment thinker and legal scholar Nagaski Sosei once said, "Power is only responsible to the source of power," and this is nothing more than that.

The local Patrol Sergeant handed the green tea from the bags to every police officer, then humbly placed boxes of yakitori at their fingertips, taking the opportunity to secretly listen to what they were chatting about; if he could strike up a conversation with the elites from the main headquarters, it would be great capital for bragging at an izakaya.

"How is it? Has Saijo Yasue confessed?" Police Inspector Megure of the Thirteenth Subsection picked up a skewer of chicken with green onion, eating it along with his cigarette and green tea.

"No, she's really difficult to deal with." Police Inspector Kousaka of the First Division also shook his head painfully: "No matter what we say, she has no reaction at all. She denied all the accusations and firmly told us that the things in the journal were her fantasies, not real; she didn't kill anyone, and she wasn't the one who dismembered the animals."

"Damn it, this little brat really needs a lesson!" Kashiwagi Jin recalled the experience of taking action himself and was still so angry his face turned red.

"Kashiwagi-san, stop worrying about this matter. For the incident where you hit someone earlier, we still have to rely on the oversight and the District Public Prosecutors Office to be accommodating." Police Inspector Kousaka shook his head in distress: "Fortunately, there was surveillance footage capturing that she was the one who struck first, so we can forcibly claim you were acting in self-defense, otherwise you would be prosecuted by the District Public Prosecutors Office!"

Upon hearing the District Public Prosecutors Office, Kashiwagi Jin's face looked even worse; he also knew he had been impulsive. Strictly speaking, daring to hit someone during an interrogation—and a minor at that—would at best result in a transfer or demotion, and at worst, dismissal.

"What about Okada?" Police Inspector Shiratori Sho asked while eating a skewer of grilled chicken skin, calmly reaching out to take the grilled diaphragm skewer from his subordinate's box, leaving the subordinate daring to be angry but not to speak.

"Okada doesn't smoke; Uesugi and Public Security are currently discussing countermeasures."

Upon hearing "Public Security," the expressions of the detectives present all turned ugly.

In the end, they still let this group of Public Security officers interfere!

Uesugi Muneyuki naturally received the "reward" from the Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters as well; he stood outside the interrogation room, watching Saijo Yasue sitting inside through the one-way glass.

Looking at the obvious malice in her hollow gaze, Uesugi Muneyuki felt a sense of disorientation.

It was as if the person sitting there was not Saijo Yasue, but himself just after he had awakened.

At that time, he also harbored such a hollow gaze, full of malice toward the whole world, carrying a huge lump of secrets in his stomach that he couldn't tell anyone, living his life in a numb and uninteresting way.

In essence, he and Saijo Yasue were actually the same type of person.

The famous bassist and philosopher, the founder of voluntarism, Yao Lenai, once said this: Life is like a pendulum, swinging between pain and boredom. When desires are not satisfied, one feels pain; when desires are satisfied, one feels boredom.

Saijo Yasue once felt very bored, and it was slaughter that allowed her to find her own happiness.

Uesugi Muneyuki also once felt very bored, and it was Mikoto who let him experience the happiness of this world for the first time.

Uesugi Muneyuki is the healed Saijo Yasue; Saijo Yasue is the broken Uesugi Muneyuki.

Damn it, do I really have an antisocial personality too?

Uesugi Muneyuki thought of a somewhat terrifying idea.

"We've investigated; this kid has no friends at school, no boyfriend, no things she's interested in... if slaughtering counts, that's barely one. She has no other special interests, and her family completely doesn't understand what she actually likes." Behind Uesugi Muneyuki, Public Security Management Officer Superintendent Ichijo Kaoru handed a bottle of low-sugar Suntory Oolong tea to Uesugi Muneyuki: "Perhaps for a person like this, slaughter is not just her interest, but the entirety of her life, right?"

"We in Public Security have actually encountered people like this before; some terrorists truly exist with terrorist activities as the meaning of their lives." Superintendent Ichijo walked to Uesugi Muneyuki's side, looking at Saijo Yasue inside through the glass: "How about it, do you need us in Public Security to find someone who understands this aspect?"

"Precisely because slaughter is the entirety of her life's meaning, that is why she longs to become a human, right?" Uesugi Muneyuki spoke up: "If someone could understand her world, she would definitely start pouring out everything about herself, wouldn't she?"

"Hey! Advisor Uesugi! Has your brain gone wrong?" Superintendent Ichijo was shocked by Uesugi Muneyuki's statement: "Are you trying to empathize with a serial killer who targeted elementary school students? Are you trying to defend her?"

"How could that be!" Uesugi Muneyuki said with a cold sneer: "If I could, I would want to execute her by firing squad right now."

"That's more like it. It's a pity she's under 20 years old, otherwise, it's truly possible she would be sentenced to death." Superintendent Ichijo finally relaxed a lot.

In Japan, the legal age of adulthood is 20, and only after 20 is it possible to be sentenced to death, but the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Japan has been modified over many years from 20 to 18 to 16 to 14; that is to say, if Saijo Yasue's charges are established, she will definitely go to prison, but because she is not yet a legal adult, she cannot be sentenced to death.

"I am thinking about a question." Uesugi Muneyuki suddenly said: "Since she likes slaughter so much, why didn't she take action against her parents and younger brother?"

"The world of a terrorist is hard to understand." Superintendent Ichijo originally wanted to say that she probably knew she would have nowhere to eat or sleep if she did that, but upon second thought, someone as crazy as her probably wouldn't consider that, so he changed his words: "How about it, should we contact her family?"

"I'll give it a try." Uesugi Muneyuki thought for a moment, pushed open the door, and went in.

He wanted to try to see if he could use his past world to touch Saijo Yasue's current world.

Inside the simple, clean, and cold interrogation room, Uesugi Muneyuki sat down in front of Saijo Yasue.

The girl seemed to have a slight reaction; she raised her head and glanced at Uesugi Muneyuki: "You finally came."

"Can we talk for a bit?" Uesugi Muneyuki asked in a low voice; he did not seek Saijo Yasue's consent and just spoke on his own: "I really want to become a human."

"............" A trace of hatred and madness flickered in the girl's hollow gaze.

"Awakening in a bizarre and grotesque world, from childhood, the people around you, the things around you, were all very strange. In the classroom, you look at them and feel they seem like humans; they laugh, they shout, they argue, but those things are like bubbles, unreal, and impossible to touch."

"What is laughter? Is opening your mouth to show your teeth laughter? What is crying? Is closing your eyes crying?"

"You don't understand the expressions of the people around you; you don't know if they are laughing or crying. You also want to laugh, you also want to cry, but you don't know what those are; these things have nothing to do with you."

"You didn't become a human the way your parents hoped; you are very bored, you really want to do something, but everything you do is boring."

The girl's pupils dilated slightly.

"Mother works very hard, but she doesn't need you; the ones who truly needed you were your grandparents." Uesugi Muneyuki said coldly: "Your grandparents never treated you as a real granddaughter; they just treated you as a child laborer to be ordered around. They arranged the heaviest work for you and even made you, an elementary school student, do troublesome things like killing chickens and fish."

"But you were very happy because you were needed; you had things you had to do and were forced to do, which gave your life meaning. Although it was forced, you were needed."

"You believed you had become a human. From the moment you were needed, slaughter was bound together with the human named Saijo Yasue. When the skull hit the ground and the blood flowed, you found the meaning of life."

The tendons on the girl's neck began to twitch.

"Mother remarried, your grandparents passed away, and suddenly, the meaning of Saijo Yasue's existence disappeared. Is she still alive? Yes, she is still alive, but she is no different from a dead person because you are no longer needed; you don't know what you should do."

"Your stepfather is desperately trying to please you, and you actually know it; your younger brother always shares the good things with you, and you actually understand it, but you cannot respond to this affection. The more your family tries to please you, the more they try to accept you, the more at a loss you feel."

"This is not what you want." Uesugi Muneyuki said coldly: "You just want a slaughter command to make you feel that you still have a shred of meaning in being alive."

"No one gave you an order, yet you created one yourself."

"But rest assured, Ms. Saijo, from today on, no one will ever love you again, no one will ever care about you again, and no one will ever go to great lengths to please you again. Ms. Saijo, you will enjoy eternal boredom inside prison and juvenile detention." Uesugi Muneyuki said coldly: "These days will be long, very long, so long that you will forget what the outside world is like, so long that you will think the sky is square, so long that you will forget the faces of those people."

"Your younger brother will not come to see you again. He is very afraid of you now, he hates you. The only need he has for you is for you to disappear forever. No one will ever pay attention to you every day or share half of everything they get with you again."

Uesugi Muneyuki finished speaking.

"Hahaha~" Saijo Yasue finally laughed out loud: "Ahahahaha~"

"You are mistaken, it is not, it is not a need." The killer finally revealed a twisted expression. She first showed a joyful look, and while laughing, she said in a very confused manner: "It is not as complicated as you think, you running dog of the system."

"There is no special reason for killing; I just suddenly felt like it, so I did it." She mentioned the death of Doi Yuan as casually as if she had stepped on a cockroach.

"Then why didn't you take action against your family?" Uesugi Muneyuki pressed.

"………………" Saijo Yasue remained silent.

"Because you are still hoping to be needed. You keep thinking that even after all this, they would surely react, right?" Uesugi Muneyuki continued: "Now I can tell you the result."

"Public Security has already processed a new identity for you. The person named Saijo Yasue no longer exists. Your parents and younger brother have all agreed to let you disappear from their lives. Your classmates will be told you transferred schools, and your neighbors will know you went abroad to study. Your existence will be erased, and you will face trial in complete isolation."

"Girl C, this is your name from now on."

"You will never be needed again, never." Uesugi Muneyuki took out the statement signed by her family renouncing their family relationship.

"You will never be able to become a human being."

"Thump~" As soon as these words were spoken, something shattered. Girl C slammed her hands against the chair armrest violently: "He hit him, he knew that guy had enough!"

"Then he struck him, just like!" Girl C hit the chair armrest with increasing force: "I don't want to hurt anyone, it was he who told me to do it! I like doing it."

"Who is he?" Uesugi Muneyuki keenly spotted the strange part of her words.

"Kill you!" However, Saijo Yasue turned her hollow gaze toward Uesugi Muneyuki. In those hollow eyes flickered the evil of this time from the root. She roared neurotically: "If it weren't for you, it wouldn't have turned out like this!"

"Kill you, kill you, kill you, kill you!" Endless hatred, a violent storm.

After saying this, Saijo Yasue let out a loud roar, raised her fist, and smashed it toward Uesugi Muneyuki!

Uesugi Muneyuki immediately stepped back. Because of the obstruction of the table, Saijo Yasue's stomach bumped against the bolted-down table and couldn't move it. Her upper body slammed onto the table, but she seemed not to feel any pain, only raising her head to stare fixedly at Uesugi Muneyuki.

"Stop!" The criminal police and Public Security officers outside immediately rushed in and pinned Saijo Yasue down firmly.

Uesugi Muneyuki immediately withdrew from the interrogation room, his expression complex.

Who is "he"?

However, before he had time to communicate with others, good news immediately came from inside.

"Advisor Uesugi, Superintendent Ichijo, she has confessed!"

"Saijo Yasue has confessed; she admits she committed three murder cases!"

(End of this chapter)