Chapter 156: The Case of the Missing University of Tokyo Professor's Wife

The case of the missing University of Tokyo professor's wife became the front-page headline of every major newspaper that day after it was exposed.

However, the impact this matter had on the public was not as great as imagined; for Japan's miserable salarymen and laborers, whether a University of Tokyo professor's wife went missing or not, or whether she lived or died, what the hell did that have to do with our 220,000 yen monthly salary?

Such pampered, high-status University of Tokyo professors are simply not the same species as us; if a few of them go missing or even die, it might actually be to our benefit!

Compared to the previous Fuji TV Case and Chiba Prefecture Case, the Japanese public was indifferent to the missing professor's wife case that plastered the headlines this time, and even secretly cheered when they heard that forces from the American FBI might intervene.

It was high time for a heavy-handed crackdown!

What about the District Public Prosecutors Office? District Public Prosecutors Office, do something!

The missing professor's wife case broadcast by major newspapers and television stations basically caused no waves; people were more interested in the haunted supernatural incidents at the Fuji TV Odaiba Building. After Mariko Hironaka was spotted twice in the second basement level of the Odaiba Building, Fuji TV was scared out of its wits. President Kameyama did two things: he ordered the room where Mariko Hironaka had her incident to be completely sealed with reinforced concrete, had workers seal off three corridors with steel plates, and then specifically invited Bai Chuan, Head of the Kanto Shrine Alliance, to personally come to the second basement level to perform a ritual.

The live broadcast of this entire operation had a viewership rating of over 30%, and Fuji TV earned back hundreds of millions of yen from advertisements alone.

If Uesugi Muneyuki hadn't been so busy, and if Miss Minami hadn't unilaterally declined Fuji TV's invitation, Fuji TV had intended to invite Uesugi Muneyuki to come along and do another one.

Even so, there were still rumors that janitors had heard strange noises and the sound of claws scratching against steel plates in the second basement of Fuji TV, scaring everyone so much that no one dared to approach that area anymore.

The rumors of Fuji TV being haunted became a topic of constant discussion throughout society; what Fuji TV loved and hated at the same time was that although the haunting was terrifying, the buzz was constant, and the ratings kept rising!

Relying on the continuous buzz and urban legends, Fuji TV finally overtook NTV after many years to return to the number one spot among the five major commercial television stations!

President Kameyama also became the greatest Fuji TV president since the turn of the millennium because of this, leading Fuji TV back to the Land Immortal Realm; if Mariko Hironaka's affair hadn't been so terrifying, President Kameyama would have even wanted to grant her a Buddhist status.

Japan's eight million gods wouldn't mind one more in Mariko Hironaka.

The public's focus was not on the Todai Case, and such topics on 2ch only reached a few hundred posts, allowing the Metropolitan Police Department to quietly establish a Special Investigation Headquarters to begin investigating the missing professor's wife case.

However, by the time the Special Investigation Headquarters for the missing professor's wife case was officially established on May 13, everyone at the Metropolitan Police Department realized how difficult this investigation would be.

After negotiations with the University of Tokyo, the university only allowed a maximum of thirty detectives to enter the Hongo Campus to investigate, and they were not to make a big scene, were not to detain or interrogate faculty and students, and especially were not to affect the normal operations of the University of Tokyo.

30 people?

This number of detectives entering the University of Tokyo would be instantly swallowed up! There wouldn't even be a ripple!

The Metropolitan Police Department also felt immense pressure. Superintendent General Watanabe Eiji ordered Division Chief Oshima of Investigation Division 1 to serve as the Headquarters Chief of the Special Investigation Headquarters for the Todai Case, sending out the elite from the First Division, Second Division, and Third Division of Investigation Division 1, while also dispatching the Metropolitan Police Department's trump card—the Special Mission Unit.

In reality, the Special Mission Unit does not get involved in cases without corpses, but at this moment, the Metropolitan Police Department could not care about that anymore.

Especially Professor William from MIT, who stated that Japanese police were not to be trusted, and even five-star General MacArthur had said that if you let the Japanese investigate it themselves, they wouldn't find anything!

Let that Uesugi investigate! The same Uesugi involved in that case at Chiba Prefecture Disneyland!

With the old professor naming him personally, the Metropolitan Police Department had no choice but to send Uesugi Muneyuki.

Uesugi Muneyuki himself also felt immense pressure.

Because while the investigation of this case was tied up in red tape, there was no corpse.

…………

May 13, Hon-Fuji Station, Special Investigation Headquarters for the missing professor's wife case.

Police Inspector Shiratori Sho of the Second Division introduced the case on stage; this part has already been mentioned previously, so it will not be repeated.

Police Inspector Kashiwagi Jin of the Third Division looked quite unnatural, especially when seeing the three giants of the Special Mission Unit sitting nearby—Watanabe Minami, Okada Masayoshi, and Uesugi Muneyuki; the pressure brought by these three people and the fact that he had once suffered a crushing defeat at their hands made him sit uneasily.

Fortunately, Division Chief Oshima's arrangement was to divide everyone into two groups: the Second Division and the Third Division, led by Police Inspector Shiratori and Police Inspector Kashiwagi, would form one group primarily responsible for screening interpersonal relationships and conducting interviews; the First Division and the Special Mission Unit would form the other group, responsible for investigating the scene and forensics.

It is worth mentioning that Police Inspector Kosaka of the First Division should have been suspended for investigation due to the possibility of a leak; however, doing so would have been almost equivalent to the Metropolitan Police Department admitting that it was their own side that leaked, so at this juncture, the Metropolitan Police Department had to support Police Inspector Kosaka instead, and since he was the first to take on this case, he was sent anyway.

Police Inspector Kosaka was originally very excited to be able to continue handling this case, but the lineup sent by the Metropolitan Police Department made him very dissatisfied.

Shiratori Sho, Kashiwagi Jin, and Okada Masayoshi were all Career Track, graduates of the Tokyo University Faculty of Law; Watanabe Minami was also Career Track, from Waseda.

Were these people really here to investigate a case?

Police Inspector Kosaka expressed his concerns to Uesugi Muneyuki in private.

"Yes and no," Uesugi Muneyuki said meaningfully, frowning as he looked at the information about Professor Tsuda on the blackboard: "The first thing we must do is confirm exactly how much Professor Tsuda knows about his wife's disappearance, and whether he has any direct involvement."

"That is also what I want to know," Police Inspector Kosaka said, sitting next to Uesugi Muneyuki with his brows locked: "But how do we investigate? Without a corpse, even Advisor Uesugi wouldn't have a way, right?"

"Don't be impatient, Kosaka-san." The lack of a corpse was indeed the greatest difficulty Uesugi Muneyuki had encountered, but precisely because there was no corpse, Uesugi Muneyuki thought of one thing: "You've watched the surveillance footage, right?"

"Yes." Police Inspector Kosaka informed Uesugi Muneyuki of the situation at the Oiwake Dormitory.

Naturally, although the University of Tokyo dormitory was relatively old, it did have surveillance. After screening, during the disappearance period from May 6 to May 7, Kosaka and the others did not capture the figure of Mrs. Tsuda on surveillance.

However, the University of Tokyo dormitory's surveillance had several loopholes.

First, in addition to the elevator surveillance, the hallways on the first and second floors of the dormitory had small doors leading outside. If Mrs. Tsuda wanted to, she could bypass the surveillance cameras and leave the Oiwake Dormitory without being discovered, although there was a lot of foot traffic there and students had to go to class, so it was unlikely she wouldn't be noticed if she left that way.

Second, the dormitory had a first and second basement level. There was a warehouse on the first basement level; if one entered the warehouse from the stairs and then left along the vertical fire escape ladder inside the warehouse, one could avoid being detected by surveillance.

Finally, the second basement level was a parking lot, and there was an air conditioning machine room inside the parking lot. If Mrs. Tsuda was familiar enough with the air conditioning machine room, she could bypass surveillance to enter the second basement level, enter the air conditioning machine room along the blind spots of the wall surveillance, and there was a door inside the machine room that could be opened to lead to the adjacent old building; if she left from there, it could also be done silently.

In other words, the Oiwake Dormitory on the Hongo Campus was not a "locked room" in the strict sense, and given the experience of Mrs. Tsuda having lived there for many years, she should have been familiar with all the ways in and out.

However, Professor Tsuda should also have been familiar with all the ways in and out.

"Very good," Uesugi Muneyuki smiled slightly: "We will go ask directly, but before that, we need to make some preparations. Can you give me half a day?"

"Eh?"

On the second day of the investigation, May 14, Uesugi Muneyuki and Kosaka Shinichiro went directly to find Professor Tsuda Daisuke of the University of Tokyo's Department of Biology.

Tsuda Daisuke was displeased by the police's second visit, but upon seeing Uesugi Muneyuki, the University of Tokyo professor still maintained a relatively polite attitude: "It's Uesugi Muneyuki-kun! Nice to meet you for the first time. The Metropolitan Police Department actually sent you; speaking of which, Kuninori-senpai took great care of me back then, and I should thank your family!"

"Professor Tsuda knows my grandfather?" Uesugi Muneyuki said in surprise.

"How could I not know him? Your grandfather was admitted to the University of Tokyo in the sixties, and for the decades since then until now, he has been studying, lecturing, and participating in research projects at the University of Tokyo, until he became a professor of cosmology in the eighties," Professor Tsuda laughed: "Who at the entire University of Tokyo doesn't know him? Even the current President Komiyama has to respectfully call him Uesugi-senpai! If it were even earlier, they would even have to call him Uesugi-kaka (that is, Your Excellency)!"

"The Peerage system was abolished by MacArthur-ko when my grandfather was only a few years old, so please, Professor Tsuda, do not say such things."

"What of it? Who doesn't know that the Uesugi Clan are the descendants of Kenshin-ko! Don't be modest, the Yonezawa Uesugi Clan truly produces great masters generation after generation, heroes among the youth!" Professor Tsuda heaped one compliment after another.

Uesugi Muneyuki and Professor Tsuda chatted and laughed, while Police Inspector Kosaka on the side was ignored.

He felt a bitter taste in his heart, and he remembered a famous quote.

"The son of a politician will become a politician, and the son of a bank president will become a bank president."

This is Japan, this is the University of Tokyo, as Toyotomi Wei says.

"The situation is like this." After exchanging a few pleasantries with Professor Tsuda, Uesugi Muneyuki got to the point. He took out a surveillance recording from 5:00 AM on May 7, just before the time Professor Tsuda woke up in the morning and discovered his wife was missing.

A lady wearing a down jacket and long trousers, with long hair and a petite build of about 160 centimeters in height, had her back to the camera as she passed by the surveillance footage at the entrance of the Oiwake campus cafeteria.

"We screened the nearby surveillance and discovered this scene." Uesugi Muneyuki pointed at the lady's back: "Professor Tsuda, take a look, is this your wife?"

Professor Tsuda's expression changed slightly; he widened his eyes, staring intently at the lady's back, and watched it over and over for a long time.

"Hmm."

"Hmm? Professor?"

"It seems to be Takako." Professor Tsuda nodded slowly, his expression somewhat uncertain: "It feels like her."

"Can you be sure?" Uesugi Muneyuki pressed: "This is critical to the case."

"There shouldn't be a problem, it is Takako... She really did leave early in the morning, sigh..." Professor Tsuda looked at it again and sighed: "The fate of a husband and wife ends here; it is all arranged by the heavens."

"Thank you very much!"

After obtaining confirmation, Uesugi Muneyuki and Police Inspector Kosaka came out; the University of Tokyo was still as busy as usual, with people coming and going.

"I can be certain now." Uesugi Muneyuki said calmly to Police Inspector Kosaka: "Professor Tsuda is absolutely related to his wife's disappearance, directly related."

"Why?!" Police Inspector Kosaka had not understood the whole time: "Wait, if there is surveillance that can prove his wife left that morning, doesn't that mean running away from home is true? This is completely opposite to your deduction!"

Uesugi Muneyuki smiled, smiling until his teeth showed.

"Because..."

(End of this chapter)