Chapter 265: Answering Questions and Resolving Doubts for Master Eirina

The Cursed Grudge exclusive to Kongō Yasha Myōō—Smoke Ghost (Suffocator).

As a Comedian, Miyahara Toru agreed to become a Cursed Grudge under Uesugi Muneyuki, and based on his morphological changes, Miyahara Toru soon obtained his exclusive ability—Smoke Haze Manipulation.

As a deceased Cursed Grudge, Miyahara Toru gained the ability to manipulate smoke haze; he can use Uesugi Muneyuki's Courage to freely release three types of smoke haze—White Smoke provides strong protective and concealment capabilities, Black Smoke emits corrosiveness and a sense of suffocation, and Green Smoke provides important healing effects.

However, Miyahara Toru also inherited his asthma problem; the Smoke Ghost can turn into smoke and dust to freely pass through gaps, but every so often, he must use the Emergency Inhaler "Shake Shake Music" to inhale a puff of Uesugi Muneyuki's Courage to restore energy. During this process, he cannot spray smoke or turn into smoke and dust, and while using the Shake Shake Music and inhaling, the Smoke Ghost is quite vulnerable.

Therefore, Miyahara Toru is not a combat-type Cursed Grudge, but if this guy's smoke screen is combined with Uesugi Muneyuki's melee combat and Hironaka Mariko's tracking, it might form a fantastic chemical reaction.

At the same time, Uesugi Muneyuki also emerged from the 【Green Room】 at Fuji TV, leaving behind only an unnamed female announcer lying there, dying and semi-conscious. According to Hironaka Mariko, the announcer's name is Ebihara Yuka, a late-night female announcer, but it actually doesn't matter what she is called; this sort of thing is a case of one willing to beat and the other willing to be beaten.

"This station cannot possibly offer you, Uesugi, too high an appearance fee. Once in a while is fine, but normally a first-tier artist gets 30,000-50,000 for a Golden Time recording. This time the station offered you 200,000, which doesn't mean we can give 200,000 every time." Hironaka Mariko said with a mischievous smile: "Kimura only got 200,000 for his last Golden Time appearance!"

"So you're using a female announcer to entertain me?" Uesugi Muneyuki retorted: "You Fuji TV people are really..."

"Well, old ghost Kameyama is just like that; after all, this station isn't some kind of devil." Hironaka Mariko said with a twisted expression: "Ah, I'm so envious of Ebihara, being able to do it with a Peerage handsome guy, being able to be injected with the Dragon of Echigo genes of Lord Kenshin! Compared to middle-aged greasy goods like old ghost Kameyama and Nakai, the young, firm, and fragrant Uesugi is much better! You're so strong, be careful that a female announcer doesn't fall in love with you!"

"Is it falling in love with me or falling in love with me?" Uesugi Muneyuki couldn't help but retort again.

He does indeed have a strong need every time he finishes Soul Communication, and since Fuji TV is willing to provide, he doesn't need to act like a righteous gentleman. It's just that the so-called Fuji TV female announcers he had been bragging about previously felt of mediocre quality, far inferior to Master Eirina, just with more standard pronunciation.

"I'll leave it to you to guide Miyahara." Uesugi Muneyuki continued: "The investigation process for this Yoshimoto Case was a bit stiff, and I don't want to be noticed by other existences in the Inner World."

"I understand." Hironaka Mariko nodded, the former Fuji TV female announcer looking disgusted: "He is too ugly; I lose my appetite just looking at his face. Fortunately, I don't need to eat now, otherwise, if I hung out with this guy, I would have to eat 50g less rice every day."

"Why 50g?"

"Because rice has been expensive lately." Hironaka Mariko stuck out her thirty-centimeter-long tongue and slipped away.

When Uesugi Muneyuki appeared again, it was already past three in the afternoon. Seeing him appear, Ikeda Eirina—the dear, tall, big-breasted beauty who had been unable to find him and almost thought he had gone missing in the Odaiba Building like Hironaka Mariko—finally breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly grabbed him: "Uesugi! Where did you go? Your phone was with the production team, but you were nowhere to be found, I was looking for you everywhere! If the production team hadn't told me that the station had something to discuss with you, I would have called the Detective."

"Master Eirina." Uesugi Muneyuki said very seriously to the tall beauty: "You are still the better one!"

"Huh?!" Eirina widened her eyes, completely failing to understand what Uesugi Muneyuki meant.

Uesugi Muneyuki thought to himself that wild flowers are indeed not as fragrant as home flowers.

Eirina looked at Uesugi Muneyuki's expression and felt that something was wrong, but upon closer inspection, it didn't seem wrong, so she said: "Your Shiyuan sister has arrived, and they will handle the subsequent matters. I need to return to the Metropolitan Police Department to write a report. Are you coming back to the Metropolitan Police Department with me or..."

"I'll go back to the Metropolitan Police Department with you." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded. He greeted Shiyuan and indicated that the rest of the matters were left to her, while Ishihara Mikoto gave him a roll of her eyes.

As expected of Muneyuki, how can he encounter a case even while recording a program?

You've only been on the job for two months, and you've encountered more cases here than I have in my years in Tokyo!

In the Fuji TV underground garage, Uesugi Muneyuki sat in the passenger seat, which was rare; this was Eirina's request.

The tall beauty was full of questions about what happened today.

"Uesugi, that..." Eirina really couldn't help it: "Don't you think it's strange? Why were you sure that the one ringing was definitely the deceased's phone? Why didn't the murderer carry two phones? Or carry both his own and the deceased's phones on him? He could have carried two, or he could have set his own alarm and used the deceased's to make the call."

"Stupid!" Uesugi Muneyuki rolled his eyes upon hearing this: "First of all, carrying both your own and the deceased's phones on you at the same time makes it very easy to be exposed, right?"

"Mm-hmm." Eirina still couldn't help but say: "If he couldn't carry two, he could have just carried his own! On what basis did you judge that the phone on him was the deceased's?"

"............ First of all, Master Eirina, we must first reach a consensus, which is that this was a crime of passion. Miyano did not prepare in advance; otherwise, he could have prepared two phones himself. If that were the case, it would be very difficult for us to investigate. Do you agree with this?" Uesugi Muneyuki said first.

"Mm-hmm!" Eirina nodded vigorously.

"Secondly, since there was no preparation in advance, and it's not convenient to carry two phones on one's person at the same time, then at that moment, faced with two phones, which one would the murderer instinctively keep on his person?" Uesugi Muneyuki held up two fingers: "One, his own work phone, ensuring no problems can be found, which can be safely handed over to the production team. Two, the deceased's phone, where he doesn't know what's inside, doesn't know if it will be discovered, or if other calls might come in accidentally?"

"So, to ensure his own control, anyone would choose to keep the problematic phone on their person and leave the safe phone outside. Do you understand?"

"Oh oh oh oh oh!" Now she understood. Eirina had an "I get it" expression, looking blank and a bit cute.

"By the same token, the Emergency Inhaler is the same logic. Miyano could certainly have stayed in the room waiting for Miyahara to die, and then stuffed the Emergency Inhaler back into his clothes instead of carrying it on himself." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded with a smile: "But this was a crime of passion, and a crime of passion dictates that Miyano could not stay in the lounge the whole time, because people coming and going outside would make it very dangerous for someone to come and greet him. So he would instinctively leave immediately, stay away from the scene, stay away from the corpse, and naturally, he wouldn't want to see his partner's death process, as that would give him a sense of guilt."

"Hey, is that so?" Eirina learned something again. The tall beauty looked at Uesugi Muneyuki, who was earnestly explaining to her, and felt very satisfied in her heart.

Uesugi's little classroom, belonging only to me!

"Please, Master Eirina, not every murderer is as heinous and psychologically resilient as in the Chiba Case and the Yokohama Case." Uesugi Muneyuki retorted: "Yoshimoto Kogyo trains Comedians, not professional killers. Miyano doesn't have that ability, nor that kind of quality."

"Mm-hmm, so that's how it is!" Eirina had completely accepted it; anyway, whatever Uesugi said was right.

After thinking for a moment, she had one last question: "Also, I want to say, isn't your attitude today a bit... too stiff?"

"It wouldn't work if it weren't stiff." Uesugi Muneyuki shook his head with a bitter smile.

The situation with this Yoshimoto artist case was very special because Miyahara truly died of an accidental asthma attack. If he hadn't been able to perform Soul Communication for a Death Soul Contract, anyone who came to investigate would have concluded it was an accidental death.

The Detective comes, it's an accidental death, not even needing a Dissection.

The family has doubts and requests an Administrative Autopsy, and the Dissection still shows an accidental death.

If both sides are dissatisfied and request the Detective to investigate further, after investigating interpersonal relationships and hearing his partner's testimony, combined with his medical history, the final investigation result would still be an accidental death.

In other words, in the vast majority of cases, once you reach the first layer, you won't investigate further. If the family requests it, you reach the second layer and won't investigate further. If there is truly, truly a problem, you investigate to the end, and the outcome will still be an accidental death case after investigating interpersonal relationships and the partner's testimony.

You don't think the Japan Detective (or even the Detective of other countries) would really investigate every accident to the end and swear to defend truth and justice, do you?

Come on, most Detectives are Public Servants; this is just a job. As long as there is a reasonable excuse and pretext to close the case, everyone will choose to close it smoothly. Besides, Miyahara died of asthma; the evidence is as solid as a mountain.

It's just a job, why risk your life?

If it were a drug dealer or a high-ranking bureaucrat or a big capitalist, that would be different; that's a major meritorious deed.

If Kameyama had died today, it would definitely have been investigated in detail.

Moreover, if every accidental death had to be investigated, there wouldn't be enough manpower, and then they would be scolded as tax thieves again.

"Hey~ I always feel that although I've entered the headquarters now, the Detective is still not what I thought it would be." Eirina finally understood, lowered her head full of resentment, and prepared to drive: "I always feel that even in the Investigation Division 1, they are very perfunctory about some things."

"After all, they are Public Servants." Uesugi Muneyuki smiled: "It's okay, Master Eirina, although we may not be able to uphold justice for every wrongly dead lonely Soul, as long as we see it, we will never allow it to be closed sloppily or ended in a muddle!"

"This is the reason for the existence of our Special Mission Unit, isn't it?"

"Mm!!!" Eirina was instantly fully charged. She stepped hard on the brake and suddenly took the initiative to kiss Uesugi Muneyuki on the cheek: "I will support you!"

"Really?"

"Really!" Eirina was very serious.

"Then... that thing you promised me last time?" Uesugi Muneyuki said with a hint of playfulness and full of a certain expectation.

"Huh? No no no~ absolutely not!" The tall beauty instinctively covered her bottom, her face blushing.

"Master Eirina~ look, I've explained it to you so well, just satisfy me once~" Uesugi Muneyuki coaxed her.

"Mmm..."

(End of this chapter)