Chapter 289: , Overturning the Entire Scene

The next day, early morning.

In November, the Kanagawa Prefecture seaside had shed the restlessness of autumn; lead-gray clouds hung low on the horizon, and a hazy mist floated where they met the ink-colored sea. From the car, Uesugi Muneyuki saw the Enoshima Lighthouse appearing and disappearing in the thin mist. After the tide had receded, the beach was left with the remains of seashells, and several wooden fishing boats were stuck at an angle in the gravel.

The sea breeze, carrying a salty chill, swept across the embankment. When the waves crashed against the breakwater, they splashed up foam like fine snow. In the distance, the pine forests of the Shonan coast surged like dark green waves, with faded red leaves hanging sporadically from the branches, looking not at all welcoming to Uesugi Muneyuki's second expedition.

In the faint light of dawn, the four of them from the Special Mission Unit sat in their official Toyota Camry, driving on the road toward Kanagawa.

Minami, as the Chief of the Special Mission Unit, did not come. Coming to the front lines were the Acting Unit Chief of the Special Mission Unit, Okada Masayoshi; the Forensic Examiner, Uesugi Muneyuki; the Forensic Assistant, Ishihara Mikoto; and of course, Uesugi Muneyuki's dear, tall, high-flying, long-legged, beautiful Judo-practicing policewoman, Ikeda Erena.

However, unlike Ikeda Erena, who was wearing a very proper ladies' small suit-pants uniform and standard patent leather low heels, the Forensic Beauty Ishihara Mikoto was dressed quite seriously today. Her figure was slender and sharp, her neck-length short hair was slightly curled, and the strands had a soft chestnut-brown luster. She wore a well-tailored off-white suit jacket, paired with a cherry-red professional skirt underneath. Her legs were wrapped in matte gray stockings beneath the dark pencil skirt, outlining smooth leg lines. Her 7cm black suede high heels made her ankles look delicate, and the rhythm of her heels tapping the ground as she walked was crisp and composed. Her makeup was very light, accented only by coral-colored lipstick. Her almond-shaped eyes held a rational and focused light, and the two pearl glimmers on her earlobes swayed lightly with her movements.

Ishihara Mikoto usually liked to wear various fashions to work, which Ikeda Erena disliked very much. In the eyes of the tall beauty, one only needed to wear professional attire and workout clothes; pretty clothes and stockings were for wearing when alone with Uesugi Muneyuki.

It is worth mentioning that before meeting Uesugi Muneyuki, Ikeda Erena's closet only contained a few sets of professional attire and sportswear, and the styles were exactly the same, with almost no variation.

Ishihara Mikoto, however, did not care about this at all. She always came to work dressed in a flashy manner, which could be considered an injection of vibrant color into the generally serious style of the Metropolitan Police Department. But the gossip behind her back was naturally inevitable, and the Forensic Beauty did not care at all. She wanted to seize her own final blooming period and live the life she wanted.

"Why are things in Kanagawa always so terrible?" Uesugi Muneyuki sat in the front seat and couldn't help but complain: "In the future, are we going to have five battles like Lord Kenshin at Kawanakajima, or six northern expeditions like Zhuge Kongming?"

"Well, this kind of thing is actually very common in Japan." Okada Keibu was in charge of driving. Hearing Uesugi Muneyuki's complaint, he responded casually: "Every year, there are many 'spirit away' cases in Japan, and most of them just don't have any follow-up. If you really ask, just say they were kidnapped by North Korea, and you'll never be wrong."

"Pfft!" "Hahahaha~" When Okada Keibu said this, Uesugi Muneyuki and Ishihara Mikoto both laughed; only Ikeda Erena was confused and didn't understand.

After the Korean War, North Korea and South Korea only signed an armistice agreement and did not truly achieve peace. The infiltration of spies between the two sides had never stopped. However, because North Korea had its own special national conditions, the spies they trained had a peculiar "Juche" smell, and their behavior and manners were easily identified as problematic by South Korea.

Therefore, starting from the 1970s, North Korea began to kidnap a large number of Japanese people on Japanese soil and overseas, training them and then disguising them as "Japanese-Koreans" to carry out espionage activities, so that South Koreans could not distinguish them immediately.

The kidnapping behavior spanned from the end of the 70s throughout the 80s. It wasn't until after the new millennium that the "Second Sun," in order to get Japan's 500,000 (specifically, it should have been 10 million USD in medical supplies and 500,000 tons of grain aid worth about 100 million USD), was forced to admit the fact that they had kidnapped many Japanese citizens. At first, they admitted to kidnapping 13 people, later adding 4 more, forced to admit to kidnapping 17 people. Among them, 5 returned home, and the rest had already died (but for example, after the ashes of the kidnapped Matsuki Kaoru were returned home, DNA Testing revealed they were not his ashes at all).

However, were there really only 17 people? In fact, Japan believed there were far more. Just the number of missing persons with evidence proving a connection to North Korea was nearly 100, while the Japanese group "Family Association" estimated that there were 880 missing person cases during this period that were the work of North Korea.

880 cases is an exaggeration, but the figure of 100 should not be a problem. Unfortunately, once the "Second Sun" got the money and goods, they immediately turned their backs, and Japan could not go in to investigate, so it ended up with nothing.

So, Japanese people have a meme: once someone goes missing and their whereabouts are unknown, someone will immediately say, "They must have been kidnapped to North Korea." In reality, however, the kidnapping behavior was mainly concentrated in coastal and overseas areas and would not go deep into the mountains, but this had already become a stereotype, not to mention that they really did it, so it became a universal excuse.

……………………

When Uesugi Muneyuki and the others stopped at the entrance of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters, the surrounding reporters had already swarmed over, crazily surrounding the middle of the car.

"It's him, it's him, it really is him! The Metropolitan Police Department really sent him!"

"Uesugi-san, Uesugi-san, what is your opinion on this case?"

"Uesugi-san, was Nikaido Kei really a suicide by drowning? If not, what evidence do you have?"

"Uesugi-san..."

Uesugi Muneyuki first signaled everyone to shut up and listen to him. After everyone quieted down, he said in a deep voice: "I have come to Kanagawa to do only three things!"

"The truth, the truth, and nothing but the truth!"

After speaking, Uesugi Muneyuki ignored everyone and strode into the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters, leaving behind the duty officers who were in a sorry state, blocking the impact of the reporters and protesters at the door.

"Uesugi! Uesugi! Uesugi!" The elderly people at the door shouted Uesugi Muneyuki's name, and the housewives screamed as they looked at his back.

Uesugi Muneyuki has come, and the blue sky has returned!

Didn't you see the Cherry Blossom Badge on him?!

This is the badge of the Special Mission Unit of the Criminal Investigation Division 1 of the Metropolitan Police Department!

After entering the Police Headquarters, Uesugi Muneyuki found that the Kanagawa Headquarters Chief, Kobayashi Shoji, was already there, along with several members of Nikaido Kei's family: his wife, parents, brothers and sisters, and his child who was five when he died and is now ten.

Seeing that it was really Uesugi Muneyuki who had come, the deceased's parents said nothing, only coming before Uesugi Muneyuki to bow deeply, while Nikaido's wife, Nikaido Misaki, simply knelt on both knees: "In these five years, we have reported to the police nine times and filed appeals six times. We know that even if we do this, we cannot bring back my dear husband's life, but we just want a result. How exactly did my husband die? Uesugi-san, can we trust you?"

"I understand your feelings very well." Uesugi Muneyuki did not refuse; he calmly accepted the kneeling of the deceased's wife and then said: "I can tell you one thing right now."

"Whether Mr. Nikaido committed suicide, I cannot be sure yet, but he definitely did not drown! Definitely!"

Once these words were spoken, the faces of everyone present changed immediately, especially the representatives from Kanagawa University, whose faces turned livid.

You, Uesugi Muneyuki, are you trying to challenge us at Kanagawa University?

And many of the police officers at the Kanagawa Headquarters present had ugly expressions; it seemed this had happened once two months ago.

Damn it! Uesugi, you guy, are you trying to destroy the Japanese police?

Once a precedent for overturning a case is set, what will happen in the future?

In the conference room, representatives from various parties were seated: the Special Mission Unit, the Kanagawa Police, the District Public Prosecutors Office, the victim's family, and Kanagawa University were divided into five sides, and Uesugi Muneyuki immediately raised a very sharp question.

This was what was mentioned earlier: in a drowning death, the lungs should be severely edematous.

"When the weight is incorrect, why indicate that the possibility of drowning cannot be ruled out? Why issue such an ambiguous decision?" Uesugi Muneyuki slammed the appraisal report on the table and questioned sternly.

Kanagawa University representative: "Currently, our Kanagawa University Medical School of Forensic Medicine has a relatively long history of development and relatively rich forensic experience."

"Since the forensic experience is very rich, and drowning is a very common cause of death, you should have some understanding of it." Uesugi Muneyuki could tell at a glance that the Kanagawa University representative was not the person who performed the Judicial Autopsy at the time: "As a forensic doctor, since you accepted the commission, you should rely on your own convictions to give a clear conclusion!"

"The autopsy activities we conducted were very rigorous and complied with the Judicial Autopsy at the technical level and capabilities of the time." The representative from Kanagawa University was sweating profusely.

"Complying with the technical level means just following the procedure once? Complying with the technical level means not even seeing that the weight of the lungs was wrong? Just blindly emphasizing no cancer and no trauma? Any intern could do this level of Judicial Autopsy; do we still need you to perform a professional Judicial Autopsy? Was your conscience eaten by dogs? Or was the Judicial Autopsy funding given every year fed to the dogs?!"

Uesugi Muneyuki's roar was heard even by the guards outside the door.

"Stop talking, stop talking." The representative from Kanagawa University was left distraught by Uesugi Muneyuki's shouting.

"I am asking you a question now!" Uesugi Muneyuki pressed on: "Where is Professor Ogiwara, who performed the autopsy at the time? Did his appraisal report observe any pyramidal hemorrhage? What was the predicted time of sinking into the water? Was there any contusion? None of these were written in the report; on what basis did he say that the possibility of drowning could not be ruled out?"

"Stop talking, stop talking." The Kanagawa University side completely gave up.

They had originally wanted to use the excuse of disrespecting their seniors to suppress Uesugi Muneyuki, but they were preempted by Uesugi Muneyuki and couldn't say a word after muttering for a long time.

With the Kanagawa University side defeated, Uesugi Muneyuki immediately turned to the Kanagawa Police.

"Who was in charge of this case at the time? Besides that Patrol Sergeant Sato Kenta, who else was the first discoverer at the scene? Step forward!"

The whole room was silent; no one dared to move until the Kanagawa Acting Headquarters Chief, Kobayashi Shoji, said: "Sonoda?"

"Yes~" A weak male voice squeezed out from the crowd. A Patrol Sergeant of about 30 years old, wearing glasses, came out with a hunched back: "Yes, it's me!"

"Very good, please introduce the situation at that time to us!" Behind Uesugi Muneyuki, the Aizen Myoo Dharma Image shone brightly, and his aura directly crushed everyone, overturning the entire scene.

Great righteousness is with Uesugi!

(End of chapter)