Chapter 12: , Shocking the Police Station for a Whole Year (Part 2)

"Go, go now!"

Uesugi Muneyuki lowered his head to look at the waxed, mummified corpse. He shouted these few words, and the scene fell into a dead silence, with only the incessant wailing of nearby police sirens. Under the gloomy Tokyo sky, the neon colors and the bustling distant scenery set off the loneliness beneath the bridge.

Like a drop of water falling into a clear, pristine lake, Uesugi Muneyuki's words stirred up a monstrous wave. Yet, he himself did not feel that way. After attempting Soul Communication, Uesugi Muneyuki withdrew his hand, only to see that not a single one of the police officers present moved. He had no choice but to say impatiently, "Go! Hurry, do as I say!"

Still, no one at the scene moved. After another few seconds passed, Tanaka Laodeng, who had been standing there with his mouth agape, finally closed his jaw: "U... Uesugi, my young friend, how did you determine..."

"Send people to investigate first, don't delay the case! As for the reasons, I will naturally explain them to you later. First, send people to the Meteorological Agency to check, then go and canvass the surrounding neighborhoods. Hurry." Uesugi Muneyuki repeated himself.

The Aizen Myoo Dharma Image manifested upon his body, glowing with a brilliant red light. The wrathful Wisdom King opened his third eye, and Uesugi Muneyuki's words were permeated with a force full of intense infectious power, causing everyone present to obey subconsciously.

"Kuwabara, do exactly as Uesugi, my young friend, said." Tanaka Laodeng instructed his subordinates.

"Alright, you few, come here, do exactly as Uesugi-san instructed." Kuwabara immediately gave orders to the Koban patrol officers and the Police Sergeants maintaining the scene.

"Very good, you lot, go now. Kobayashi, you are responsible for the first block; Yoshinaga, you go check the second block; Fukagawa, you..." The subordinate Police Sergeants immediately distributed the tasks, and so the newly arrived Patrol Officers and the veteran Patrol Sergeants began their legwork.

Seeing that the tasks had been assigned, Uesugi Muneyuki nodded, and only then did he begin to explain the reasons for his judgment.

"This is not a recently deceased body; this corpse has been dead for several years." Uesugi Muneyuki said to Assistant Police Inspector Tanaka and the remaining Police Sergeants: "The reason the corpse has remained largely intact is because it has undergone the phenomenon of waxing. You should have heard that corpses in some ancient desert kingdoms can remain uncorrupted for a thousand years, right?"

"But why hasn't the corpse rotted?" Tanaka Laodeng came up and said, puzzled: "Tokyo is not a big desert. A corpse will start to rot in just a day or two. Isn't that exactly what you said last time, Uesugi?"

Uesugi Muneyuki closed his eyes and nodded: "Yes, normally, a corpse will decay. Full-body waxing into a mummified corpse is indeed a very rare situation, which is why I must explain it specifically."

He held up three fingers: "First, after a person dies, the blood circulation in the body stops, and moisture is no longer replenished. Therefore, the moisture on the skin begins to evaporate, and the body gradually becomes dry. On the other hand, human skin is relatively thin; as long as the temperature and moisture are suitable, the human body will gradually begin to rot."

"However, if the corpse is in a low-temperature and continuously dry environment before decay occurs, the leathering of the corpse—that is, waxing—will occur before decay. At this point, the exterior of the corpse will close off, and as moisture is continuously lost, the corpse will lose the conditions for decay and transform into a waxed, mummified corpse."

Uesugi Muneyuki pointed at the corpse on the ground: "That is why it has become what you see."

"So that's how it is." Tanaka Laodeng seemed to understand: "But what does this have to do with your previous judgment? Uesugi, my young friend?"

"Tokyo has a typical temperate monsoon climate. The temperature is too high, and cell activity and microbial activity are high. Under these conditions, it is absolutely impossible for a corpse to undergo waxing. Therefore, one can conclude that this deceased person must have gone missing in winter. In Tokyo's winter, the temperature is cold enough to stay low for over a month, which gives the corpse enough time to wax. That is the first point." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded and continued: "Then there is the issue of humidity. If the environment where the corpse is located has high enough humidity, even if the temperature is very low, as long as it doesn't freeze, the corpse will still rot. However, pay attention to the surrounding environment."

Everyone looked up and saw that both sides of Eiraku Bridge were full of high-rise buildings. In the glittering night view, only the area near the small bridge was a low-rise residential district, and the wind blew incessantly under the bridge arch.

"Oh! I understand. Uesugi, my young friend, means that there is always wind here, constantly drying the corpse. And as long as we can find out which winters in the past few years had very little rain, keeping the humidity controlled so that the corpse had no chance to rot, that's it?" Assistant Police Inspector Tanaka suddenly realized.

"Correct, that is why I wanted you to check which years had strong winds but very little rainfall." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded repeatedly.

Wow!

A gasp of amazement went around the crowd.

This is too strong, Uesugi, my young friend. Tanaka Naoki felt that his 20 years of handling cases had all been for nothing. When this old man thought about it carefully, it really was exactly like that.

"Naruhodo! Sou desu ne~" The group of police officers around them also sighed in succession.

This is what you call professional!

But before the exclamations were finished, Tanaka Laodeng had another question: "The winter disappearance and the windy year, that's no problem. But why is it a case of leaving home and going missing, and why would they have psychological obstacles? Why not suicide or an accidental fall, or perhaps a criminal case? Doesn't the body have many scars on it?"

"Yeah, yeah." Kuwabara, the Police Sergeant next to him, also chimed in. He found that he had also started to enjoy listening to Uesugi Muneyuki tell a story: "Why is that?"

"A thirty-something-year-old adult, wearing pajamas, frozen to death in a bridge arch—that in itself is very abnormal." Uesugi Muneyuki continued to explain: "No matter what an adult's situation is, the basic need for food and warmth should be an instinct. Humans are not cats or dogs; even if they run away from home, they will actively seek possible help, or at least find a way not to die so quickly."

"So, you think the deceased had mental problems?" Tanaka Laodeng stroked his chin, beginning to understand: "That's true, it's very strange for someone to come out in the middle of winter wearing pajamas and crawl into a bridge arch, but..."

"You want to talk about the scars on the corpse, right?" Uesugi Muneyuki pointed to the scars on the surface of the mummified body: "These are self-inflicted."

"What?"

"Look closely. Generally speaking, the surface area of the fingers is larger, making them easier to dry out and undergo waxing. At the same time, if the corpse is in a dehydrated state and suffers abrasions, the moisture loss at the wound will accelerate, and the wound will harden and turn dark brown after drying." Uesugi Muneyuki said in a deep voice: "There are many such small scars on the surface of the corpse's hands, including some scars on the body that can be identified with the naked eye. Some scars were left before death, and some were left during the process of dying."

"When a person is injured, they die; when a person is injured, they feel pain and will want to find ways to alleviate it. But the deceased seemed not to care at all, which shows that there is a high probability that he was an adult with a mental disorder. He was prone to hurting himself, suddenly had an episode on a winter night and left home, wearing pajamas and losing his way, subconsciously wanting to find a dark, narrow place to hide, and thus froze to death under the bridge pier. It was winter at the time, the weather was very cold, the corpse was frozen stiff, and this place is in a valley section of the terrain. There was a strong wind passing through at the time, and through constant blowing, the corpse underwent waxing."

Uesugi Muneyuki concluded: "A person with an intellectual disability, in the freezing cold of winter, how far could they go? As long as we investigate the nearby streets, we will definitely be able to find the true identity of the missing person!"

Brilliant, brilliant~

Assistant Police Inspector Tanaka simply didn't know what to say.

Yes, it matches.

It all matches!

Could this young friend really be a genius?!

After these words, the surrounding police officers were all filled with admiration, shaking their heads repeatedly, impressed to the extreme.

Even the onlookers were speechless.

Professor Kawachi had already put on his gloves, ready to check again, but after hearing Uesugi Muneyuki's full account, the old professor couldn't find any words to refute him for a moment. He also sighed and silently took off his gloves again.

He felt that there was no need to come to the scene in the future. With this child's ability, he could complete an autopsy independently very well.

Perhaps, this is the path that suits him.

After waiting at the scene for only an hour, there was a new discovery. A newly arrived Patrol Officer said excitedly: "Found it! Assistant Police Inspector Tanaka, we found the deceased's family!"

"The deceased, Yokoshima Takao, 33 years old, suffered from a mental disorder. He went missing five years ago after leaving home one winter. His family thought he was already dead... I didn't expect the body to be here!"

"We contacted them as soon as we asked. Assistant Police Inspector, do we need to have the family come to the scene to identify the body?"

"Of course, what kind of silly question is that." Tanaka Laodeng naturally wanted to get off work early: "Invite them over immediately."

After arranging these matters, Assistant Police Inspector Tanaka and Police Sergeant Kuwabara looked at Uesugi Muneyuki with the eyes of someone looking at a monster: "You really called it, Uesugi, my young friend! Namu San! Are all new forensic pathologists monsters these days? Too strong. If all forensic pathologists were like you, we police wouldn't be needed."

"Tanaka-san is too kind." Uesugi Muneyuki said calmly: "I am just a forensic pathologist. What I need to do is to make things clear... Uh, when can we finish?"

"Wait a moment. Once the family comes to identify the body, as long as it matches and the family has no further requests, we can close the scene. Others will naturally handle the rest." Tanaka Laodeng let out a long sigh of relief and patted Uesugi Muneyuki on the shoulder eagerly: "It's only eight o'clock in the evening, my young friend. You have helped me save half the night!"

"That's true. If you get home before nine, you might even be able to eat a hot meal from your wife." Uesugi Muneyuki raised an eyebrow: "But my overtime pay, from five to eight, please remember to settle the 2,000 per hour for me. Also, the autopsy fee from last time and the autopsy fee for this time."

"Definitely!" Tanaka Laodeng thought to himself that this was easy to handle; it wasn't his money anyway!

Report whatever, just report half a day's overtime for Uesugi, my young friend.

Hmm, as for me, I'll definitely report overtime until the early morning, and I can even take half a day off in lieu.

Namu San, ever since I met this young friend, my life seems to be getting better and better.

It seems that I, Tanaka, have finally turned my luck around. I was just saying recently that my luck was bad and there were always accidents, but instead, I encountered a talent like Uesugi, my young friend. This is probably 'blessings and misfortunes are interdependent.'

The old man was truly feeling wonderful inside.

On the other side, Uesugi Muneyuki's mood was really not very good.

This time during the Autopsy, he did not absorb any Soul, partly because the body had been dead for a long time and the Contract Power could not awaken the Dead Soul, and furthermore, according to the Contract Power, the Dead Soul of someone with a mental disorder does not even form after death.

This was the reason Uesugi Muneyuki judged the deceased to be someone with a psychological disorder—the Dead Soul of the wife among the Ishizaka couple from before had been very weak after she developed Alzheimer's disease.

An excellent Forensic Pathologist must have the courage to make judgments!

After a while, the family members arrived.

An elderly couple with graying hair supported each other as they arrived at the scene, and upon a brief identification, they recognized their son: "That's right, this is Takao."

"We are sorry, we feel very regretful." Assistant Police Inspector Tanaka and several other police officers bowed together.

"It is fine, we had already accepted the fact that he left, we just didn't expect that he would stay under the bridge pier for five years." The Yokoshima couple appeared very calm about the fact that their son had died, and Mrs. Yokoshima placed her hands in front and bowed to express her gratitude: "Excuse me, my child has caused you trouble, I am truly sorry! Thank you very much."

"No, this is our duty." Tanaka Laodeng performed a super transformation, putting on a standard expression of grief: "The Forensic Pathologist has already determined that the cause of death was hypothermia; do you need any further information regarding this?"

"No need." Mr. Yokoshima shook his head firmly, and he sighed deeply: "For Takao and our family, being alive has always been a painful thing; since Takao has already attained Buddhahood, do not disturb him anymore."

"In that case, please sign the documents." Tanaka Laodeng actually did not want to create extra complications in his heart either; seeing that the couple had no intention of further investigation, he had the involved parties sign the documents and then ordered the Koban below to handle the follow-up work.

"Clear the scene!"

However, although the case was over, the memory Uesugi Muneyuki left for the police at the scene was incredibly profound; the next day, his story began to spread throughout the Koban and Police Stations under the Bunkyo Ward.

There is a super~ amazing young Forensic Pathologist at Tokyo Medical and Dental University!

Just by performing a surface Autopsy, he can perfectly reconstruct what happened at the time!

Really, I saw it with my own eyes!

He is simply a talent seen once in ten years, no, once in a hundred years!

The name of Uesugi Muneyuki arrived along with the drizzling rain of May.

A few days later, Metropolitan Police Department headquarters at Sakuradamon, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

The computer screen paused at a certain point in the case report, and a pair of slender, beautiful legs crossed together under the desk reacted; through the matte flesh-colored stockings, one could vaguely see delicate pink skin, reflecting an alluring luster under the natural light from outside the window.

The soft lines of the stockings extended all the way to above the woman's knees, barely covered by the dark blue police uniform skirt.

The uniform of a standard female desk-duty police officer at the Metropolitan Police Department combined beauty and restraint, outlining the majesty belonging to a police officer and the elegance of the workplace; the dark blue uniform jacket, the police badge on the shoulder, and the golden tassels were like stars in the night sky, brilliant and eye-catching; in the middle of the white shirt, the light blue uniform tie provided a slight contrast that grabbed one's attention.

A golden police rank insignia hung on the woman's chest; her appearance looked to be only in her early 20s, but her rank was already the level Tanaka Laodeng had struggled for a lifetime to reach—Police Inspector.

Supporting her cheek with one hand, her smooth, long black hair hung down from her ears, and a look of interest appeared slightly on her pretty face, which was filled with an arrogance and aloofness that said "strangers keep away"; although this scene could not be seen by outsiders, it did not affect the fact that she was a beauty who was breathtaking to look at for even a moment.

The data reflected in those sweet and haughty eyes as the mouse scrolled; the woman remained calm, maintaining the elegance and composure befitting her status.

"Uesugi Muneyuki, intern Forensic Pathologist at Tokyo Medical and Dental University."

"He doesn't want to be a promising surgeon, but instead transfers to the Forensic Medicine Department to specialize in looking at dead people, showing extraordinary talent."

"It seems he is also of the Peerage?"

"Interesting, truly interesting."

My heart hurts so much, I feel like I won't be able to love again.

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(End of this chapter)