Chapter 121: The Dead Tell No Tales

Although his injuries were not serious, Uesugi Muneyuki had indeed not yet recovered his health. Miss Minami immediately arranged for Ikeda Erena to take him back to the intensive care ward, then went out at once to discuss with Criminal Investigation Department Chief Mouri how to proceed with this bizarre case.

The first thing the Metropolitan Police Department had to do was ensure that the news of Kashiwagi Jin's wrongful arrest of Uesugi and his unauthorized opening of Uesugi's personal effects did not spread; otherwise, it would be a massive blow to the Metropolitan Police Department, which had just begun to hold its head high.

Miss Minami, Police Inspector Okada, and Department Manager Mouri held a small meeting on the spot.

"Advisor Uesugi seems very angry this time. We must find a way to keep him from talking about what happened today, or this will be a major scandal for the Metropolitan Police Department," Police Inspector Okada said as soon as he sat down. "Is there any way to keep him from filing a complaint?"

"He never intended to file a complaint in the first place." Miss Minami leaned back in her chair, calm and composed, crossing her slender, delicate legs—wrapped in 80D thick, fleece-lined black silk stockings—and rolled her eyes. "Okada, I ask you, what is Uesugi Muneyuki's origin?"

"The Yonezawa Uesugi Clan, a Count among the Old Domain Lord Peerage, right?" Police Inspector Okada did not understand for a moment.

"Then what do you think of his erudition?" Miss Minami picked up the hot coffee in her hands.

"His quality is quite good... I think I understand." Police Inspector Okada quickly caught on.

"Sometimes, the less you want to do something, the more you need to keep talking about it," Department Manager Mouri said indifferently. "Does Uesugi-kun need others to teach him? The fact that he kept emphasizing this matter itself already indicated his attitude."

"Understood." Okada Masayoshi said no more.

Since Uesugi Muneyuki was willing to negotiate and did not intend to file a complaint, the matter was much easier to handle.

Next was the second matter: how to handle this case?

"This case is strange in every respect now. Actually... Kashiwagi's judgment really has some merit, but the surveillance footage explains everything. But the problem is, if Uesugi-kun is not the real culprit, how are we to explain all this to the public?" Okada Masayoshi quickly focused his attention on the next issue.

"Why do we have to explain everything to the public?" Watanabe Minami tilted her head while holding her coffee, her sweet apricot-shaped eyes full of great confusion. "Why would we make it public?"

"Eh?" Police Inspector Okada was stunned once again.

"After the incident occurred, Hospital Director Ukai, representing the Medical and Dental University, negotiated with us at the first opportunity not to make it public and to resolve it internally," Department Manager Mouri said calmly. "The hospital will pay a special sum to the family of the deceased and the family of the guard to settle it. As for that dead lover of Uesugi-kun..."

Upon hearing the word "lover," Miss Minami's gaze immediately turned sharp. "I asked Uesugi-kun; he was just a poor student from Hokkaido who came to the capital and still owed Uesugi-kun a large sum of money. Easy to handle."

"Right, it is now 5:30 in the morning. We responded to the scene very quickly, and neither reporters nor newspapers have reacted, so we have already discussed it with the hospital. This matter will not be made public; we will just say it was a medical accident," Department Manager Mouri nodded immediately.

"But shouldn't the citizens have the right to know?" Police Inspector Okada couldn't help but say.

"Does knowing about this benefit the citizens in any way?" Department Manager Mouri said a few extra words only because Police Inspector Okada was someone Director General Watanabe paid attention to. "The entire citizenry also wants to know what else was in those money boxes during the Three Hundred Million Yen Robbery; must we tell them that too?"

There were two details in the Three Hundred Million Yen Robbery, the first case in post-war Japan, that were never made public. The first was that on that day, besides the three hundred million yen in banknotes, there was something else in the cash boxes of the armored car. The second was that the smoke candle failed to ignite successfully on the first attempt that day, and the culprit used a special method to ignite it.

After the Three Hundred Million Yen Robbery, at least 100 people voluntarily surrendered to the police, but not one of them could state these two details of the case, so none of them were the real criminals.

In many homicide cases, the police do not disclose all the details.

"If people don't know what you are doing, then they don't know what you did wrong," Miss Minami said naturally. "There is no need to make this case public."

"Moreover, this case cannot be investigated by Uesugi-kun; he must recuse himself," Department Manager Mouri frowned.

"Right, he must recuse himself," Watanabe Minami also said in a muffled voice. "The headquarters also absolutely recognizes Uesugi-kun's ability. Do you think that if even he couldn't find any problems after performing the autopsy himself, we could find anything else?"

"Let's just define the nature of this incident directly. Have Higashiyama and the others from the Forensics Division perform a full dissection to find a reasonable excuse for this," Department Manager Mouri said finally. "Minami, you are responsible for going to apologize to Uesugi-kun and see what he wants."

……………………

The Metropolitan Police Department reached an agreement with the Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital at an extremely fast speed, and at the same time, the Tokyo Medical and Dental University also resolved its internal problems with extreme speed and courage.

First was the family of the deceased. When Nakano Toshito's wife learned that she could receive a large sum of compensation from the hospital—or that if it were made public, it would have to go through formal procedures and she would only receive a small amount of compensation—she chose the former without hesitation and immediately signed two documents: a waiver of prosecution and a declaration of the termination of their marital relationship.

It was the same for the guard's side. Hearing that they could get a large sum of money, Tsukada Mitsunosuke's whole family was very happy. His son was very moved and proudly stated that his father had made a final contribution to the family, and then they went out to eat a big meal together.

Then there was the issue of Saito Nanami; the Metropolitan Police Department was responsible for the aftermath here.

Just like that, when the media discovered the incident, the Metropolitan Police Department and the Tokyo Medical and Dental University jointly announced to the outside world that a minor medical accident had occurred internally, and because it involved patient privacy, it would not be disclosed.

The Metropolitan Police Department swiftly sent the several corpses, especially the corpse of that strange thing Nakano Toshito, to the Forensics Division at the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters for dissection, while Uesugi Muneyuki himself was ordered not to participate in this case due to the need for recusal.

Likewise, Police Inspector Kashiwagi Jin was temporarily suspended by the Metropolitan Police Department due to his violation of regulations and his arrest of someone without evidence, but this was an internal punishment; the external announcement was that he was going to the Police University to participate in a one-month advanced training course.

In fact, having committed such a serious error, Police Inspector Kashiwagi Jin should have been directly transferred by the headquarters to a local branch station to serve as a Criminal Investigation Division Chief, but for an elite of the Career Track, this was roughly equivalent to a death sentence for his career.

And it was under these circumstances that Investigation Division 1 Chief Mikasa actually came forward voluntarily to take responsibility for Kashiwagi Jin. Investigation Division 1 Chief Mikasa chose to take the blame for Kashiwagi, losing his position as Investigation Division 1 Chief for this, and was transferred to be the Chief of Shiba Police Station.

Investigation Division 1 Chief Mikasa and Police Inspector Kashiwagi were on very close terms; he had been the one to promote Kashiwagi, and Kashiwagi Jin's wife had also been introduced by Investigation Division 1 Chief Mikasa.

Kashiwagi Jin used this to exchange for the lighter punishment of a one-month suspension.

It can only be said that, after all, they are equivalent to centrally selected civil servants; Career Track police are not so easily knocked down, but what is certain is that if he commits another offense, no other Division Chief will be willing to take the blame for him.

Just like that, when Uesugi Muneyuki woke up in the VIP ward again, everything had already been settled.

Miss Minami and the tall beauty Erena were both in the ward, both wearing standard police uniform skirts. Erena's pretty face was full of worry, yet also a bit of small resentment, and the look in her eyes as she watched Uesugi Muneyuki clearly carried a sense of "you should have learned your craft from me properly long ago," waiting for Uesugi Muneyuki to soften and admit defeat.

As for Miss Minami, she was calm and composed. Her long black hair covered her features, which looked a bit haggard from not sleeping well for a night, but even so, she remained stunning, sweet, and lovely—not to mention that standard Metropolitan Police Department internal affairs winter uniform skirt, and those slender legs wrapped in thick black hip-hugging velvet silk stockings, with black commuting high-heeled shoes hooked onto the tips of her black-silk-clad beautiful feet, swaying gently with Miss Minami's movements.

"Tsk tsk tsk, Uesugi-kun, you claim to be a descendant of Lord Kenshin and a descendant of the Samurai Peerage all day long, yet your level isn't much to speak of," Miss Minami smiled and put down her coffee after confirming that Uesugi Muneyuki was fine. "Where did the samurai's mastery of archery and horsemanship and combat skills go?"

"Martial arts are not a factory setting for the samurai class," Uesugi Muneyuki leaned against his pillow and rolled his eyes. "Did Miss Minami know how to investigate and shoot firearms the moment she was born? Oh, I forgot, you still don't know how now."

Watanabe Eiji was a rare member of the Career Track who would personally go to the scene to participate in investigations in large numbers (though because he was promoted very quickly, the absolute number was not high), and he was also a firearms master whose shooting records still ranked among the top.

"Uesugi!!! I'm going to sew your mouth shut!" This one sentence from Uesugi Muneyuki caused Miss Minami to be precisely broken; she rushed up, claws and fangs bared, pinched Uesugi Muneyuki's cheeks with both hands, and shrieked, "Sure enough! You guy are cuter when you're asleep than when you're awake!"

"Who would help your Metropolitan Police Department perform autopsies if I were asleep?" Uesugi Muneyuki also made a joke, then said, "What era is it now? The Edo Period was 400 years ago. Does anyone really think that being of samurai descent means one is naturally capable of martial arts?"

By the time the Japanese Warring States period reached the 1582 Honnō-ji Incident, where the Demon King was burned, in fact, the vast majority of famous ministers, good generals, and Warring States heroes had already withered away before Oda Nobunaga. The Dragon and the Tiger, the Strategist of Western Japan, the Sagami Lion, the Eagle of Omi, the Vice-Shogun of Japan, the Yin-Yang Governor, the Viper of Mino, and the First Archer of the Tokaido had all died. By the eve of the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, there were few famous figures left.

Once there was no war, the speed of the samurai class's degeneration was actually very fast. At the 1615 Siege of Osaka, many of the tens of thousands of Tokugawa family's banner guards had never actually fought in a war; the nearly 74-year-old Tokugawa Ieyasu had to personally go into battle to demonstrate how to dig trenches.

At this time, the only ones in the Shogunate's great army with real combat experience and a certain level of command ability were Uesugi Kagekatsu and Date Clan, but these two Feudal Lords both did the bare minimum and watched the Tokugawa main camp make a fool of themselves. When Sanada Yukimura and Mori Katsunaga charged over, the tens of thousands of banner guards were panicked and nearly broken through, scaring the old turtle into a cold sweat.

That wasn't all. By the 1638 Shimabara Rebellion, Amakusa Shiro led 37,000 farmers, including the old, weak, women, and children, to raise an army. As a result, the Edo Shogunate's 120,000-strong expeditionary force fought for over a month with poor results and heavy casualties, and the general Itakura Shigemasa was killed in action. Having no other choice, they were forced to invite the "Peerless of Western Japan" Tachibana Muneshige to come out of retirement. This Peerless of Western Japan, who was already 72 years old at the time, personally went into battle. The Shogunate army fought for another month, and only when the rebels were so hungry they were all eating seaweed did they dare to launch a general offensive, and they still paid the price of over 1,700 dead and 11,000 wounded to suppress it.

Many people in later generations used this incident to mock Tachibana Muneshige for having a name without substance, but Tachibana Muneshige was the one who blocked the charge of Li Rusong's personal cavalry group at the Battle of Byeokjegwan and nearly forced Li Rusong into a desperate situation. He was one of only two fierce men proven by the Great Ming to have "gold content" (the other being Shimazu Yoshihiro).

There was no other reason; the samurai class at that time had already completely decayed.

If it could be said that during the time of the third Shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, some samurai still maintained a martial spirit, then by the time of the fifth Shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the vast majority of samurai had already become "Court Noble-ized" and "bureaucratized."

Martial arts that aren't used—why learn them?

The Uesugi main family had completely transformed into a scholarly family as early as the Taisho era. These days, what descendant of a samurai family studies martial arts?

"Yes, yes, yes, you have a point for everything," Miss Minami wrinkled her pretty little nose. "Then our Advisor Uesugi, how do you intend to handle this matter? Do you accept my apology?"

"That depends on how you apologize," Uesugi Muneyuki smiled slightly. "Our Miss Minami shouldn't need me to teach her how to apologize, right?"

"Hmph~ I already thought of it. Ikeda, I'll leave it to you!" Miss Minami waved her hand grandly.

"Huh?!"

(End of chapter)