Chapter 558

PS：Tomorrow the Tenshi will depart for a distant place to serve as groomsman at the wedding of a close high school classmate and relative; updates these two days may be unstable, I will try to take only one day off, please understand~understanding, long live~

At nine o'clock the next morning, Sakuradamon, Metropolitan Police Department Major Investigation Headquarters!

At this time the Major Investigation Headquarters had already learned that Shizuoka Prefecture had again seen a case in which the daughter of a National Diet Member, already four months pregnant, had been kidnapped; and here, ever since the "maintenance worker" lead went cold, there has been no progress, and everyone feels immense pressure.

Knowing the details, Uesugi Muneyuki's heart also grew shadowed.

What exactly is the relationship between the Sakikawa Restoration Army and the Red Goldfinch?

Who exactly possesses the power of the inner world?

Who exactly is that maintenance worker?

Clearly different organizations, why do they use ANFO explosives from the same source?

The new god of Kansai clearly promised not to come to Kantou, yet Kantou here keeps erupting with all kinds of incidents; the other party originally had no need to pretend, if he wants to keep stirring trouble, he doesn't need to make promises, yet he made promises and still stirs trouble—this shows his pretensions—are very low!

This is not something a being capable of becoming a new god would do, especially as the Village Flower Palace said, new gods must reach the extreme in some aspect and become part of the world concept themselves to become new gods.

This, Uesugi Muneyuki cannot understand.

But he knows he must act fast! Otherwise these inner-world beings hiding away will become easier and easier!

And just as Uesugi Muneyuki was thinking, the doors of the command center were pushed open one after another, a torrent unprecedented, formed by the convergence of knowledge and authority, swept in!

"Tokyo University, Chemical Analysis Team, team leader Professor Miyazaki Ryosuke, responding to Doctor Uesugi's summons to report!" An elderly man with white hair but spirited stepped forward first, followed by over a dozen Tokyo University elites holding precision instrument cases, eyes sharp.

Tokyo University, here we come!

This nation's highest institution of learning finally, at the moment the nation most needs help, deployed its finest strength!

Before the crowd could react, another team marched in, bearing the unique rigorous aura of the Metropolitan Police Department: "Metropolitan Police Department Scientific Police Research Institute, Microtrace Evidence Analysis Division, section chief Kobayashi Masami, leading the full division's backbone, fully cooperating in analysis!"

The Metropolitan Police Department's Forensic Science Laboratory also mobilized fully!

But this is not over; these two parts are merely the standing forces, while those powers hidden in society have finally, under Uesugi Muneyuki's summons, formally appeared!

As trucks bearing the logos of Mitsui Group and Sumitomo Group drove up outside, Uesugi Muneyuki finally got what he needed.

"Mitsui Chemicals, Advanced Materials Analysis Department, department head Takashima Kento, dispatched by Executive Director Sato, leading the expert team to assist! Our company has opened full authorization for the national chemical composition database!"

"Sumitomo Chemicals, Specialty Chemicals Traceability Team, person in charge Sakuma Kenichi, ordered to cooperate! We know the composition of historical industrial additives like the back of our hand!"

"Sumitomo Forestry, Timber Authentication Center, chief expert Morita Shigeru, reporting with nationwide forest preservative usage records from the Showa era to present! Any wood shavings cannot escape our eyes!"

One resounding name after another, each representing a team at the pinnacle of Japan's academic and industrial world, like knights summoned by a sovereign, at this moment concerning national dignity, gathered in this small space of the Metropolitan Police Department! They brought their most advanced equipment, instantly transforming the temporarily assembled joint analysis center into a world-top forensic science laboratory!

The scene instantly boiled over!

The headquarters, originally silent due to broken leads, was like injected with adrenaline! All investigators stood up, eyes blazing as they gazed at these figures usually seen only in news reports or academic journals. The air filled with an indescribable excitement and awe.

And standing in the eye of the storm was precisely Uesugi Muneyuki.

He gazed at the gathering of industry grand masters and elites who had come because of his one phone call, one report, seeing in their eyes the same thirst for truth and devotion to science as his own; a previously unknown surge of热流 stirred and surged in his chest!

He had once been the solitary scientist before the autopsy table, the maverick forensic doctor in the police force.

But now he clearly realized that what he was mobilizing was no longer just a few people from the Special Mission Unit, but half of Kantou, even all of Japan, in the fields of chemistry, materials, and forestry—a national-level force! A "all heroes under heaven enter my net" grandeur, mixed with immense responsibility, made him almost tremble.

This is power, this is the joy of one call bringing a hundred responses, this is what countless people throughout history have pursued!

"Everyone!" Uesugi Muneyuki's voice rose slightly from excitement, yet remained clear: "Time is urgent, skip the pleasantries! Target One: peel back and extract the 'ghost' bomb left at the scene from the molecular level, find its birthplace!" Please!

"Oh!" came the reply—uniform shouts, full of fighting spirit.

No extra words, the united all-out battle instantly ignited!

The Tokyo University team and the Forensic Science Laboratory experts immediately gathered around the latest mass spectrometer and isotope ratio mass spectrometer; Professor Miyazaki personally adjusted parameters, and the screen began to crazily roll data streams.

Mitsui Chemicals' department head Takashima directed his team to conduct ultra-high-speed comparison of the elemental composition of explosive residues against the national chemical plant raw material database, seeking that tiny yet decisive difference.

Sakuma team leader of Sumitomo Chemicals focused on those trace additives and impurities, attempting to find from them a "time signature" pointing to a specific era and specific craft.

Chief expert Morita of Sumitomo Forestry even donned white gloves, and under high-power electron microscope, like appraising artwork, observed the fiber structure and cellular arrangement of wood shavings, while rapidly flipping through the thick records he brought.

At this moment, they tightly united around Uesugi Muneyuki—command voices, discussion voices, the hum of instruments, keyboard clacks—merged into a stirring symphony of science fighting for truth!

Sweat soaked the researchers' white coats; criminal investigators voluntarily took on delivering samples and ensuring logistics, everyone infected by this united atmosphere, willingly becoming a cog in this great machine.

There is only one target!

And Uesugi Muneyuki is precisely the one controlling this great machine—he is logically clear, mentally sharp, directionally certain, one person skillfully harmonizing multiple resources, driving this colossal machine toward his desired direction!

Others simply cannot get involved, only silently watching Uesugi Muneyuki work; not far from him, Watanabe Minami, Ikeda Erena, and Ishihara Mikoto assisting him, even including Kashiwagi Misa secretly glancing at him from the corner, seeing him in white lab coat and suit, face solemn and严肃, unraveling cocoons and drawing threads, their eyes could not help but shimmer with strange light, fiercely bursting with little stars.

When is a man most handsome?

A man is most handsome when he is earnest!

When is a man most stylish?

When he controls vast resources at will, holding power in his hand to decide others' fates with a single word—that is when he is most stylish!

At a certain moment, what everyone saw in their eyes was not the descendant of the Yonezawa Uesugi clan, the legendary forensic doctor Uesugi Muneyuki, but that man bearing the great "毘" flag, the great dragon flag, the long-tailed nine luminaries pattern and Uesugi bamboo sparrow crest, riding the released month fur, holding the顺庆长光, clad in white monk's robes, shouting the Vaisravana Buddha's name, assuming the post of Kantou Kanrei at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu—this man, returned!

Kenshin Kō, is it you?

And among those present, Watanabe Eiji and Onoda Kimiaki saw even more.

By now, the resources under Uesugi's control grow ever greater, and as long as he keeps solving cases and society keeps having troubles, one day he will become an existence the police organization, even the Cabinet, cannot ignore!

Watanabe Eiji's face showed joy, Onoda Kimiaki's face showed hidden worry.

Yet they do not wish to change the status quo, because solving cases is the police organization's dead KPI, because whether problems can be solved is the sole meaning of the police organization's existence; from this angle, without Uesugi there would be no present Watanabe and Onoda, without him there would be no Metropolitan Police Department!

Several hours later.

"Found it!" First to shout was Mitsui Chemicals' department head Takashima, pointing at an abnormal peak jumping out on the screen: "Abnormal nitrogen-15 isotope ratio! This differs significantly from the Kantou Plain industrial fertilizer products, and is closer to——the nitrogen cycle characteristic unique to volcanic regions!"

"Uesugi Chief! Here the δ15N and δ1? 0 values show clear difference from the mainstream fertilizer plant products of the Kantou Plain! More inclined toward——a certain special, non-industrial nitrogen source! "

Almost simultaneously, Sumitomo Chemicals' team leader Sakuma slammed the table: "Confirmed! The preservative component is a mixture of chlorodan and copper cyclohexanecarboxylate, a formulation used exclusively in certain forest plots in Shizuoka and Yamanashi Prefectures between Showa 52 and 58 (1977-1983)!"

After another hour or so, the final clincher came from Sumitomo Forestry's chief expert Morita, who lifted his head, eyes flashing with the light of discovering a new continent, voice trembling with excitement:

"Wood shavings fiber structure confirmed, as the unique Japanese cedar of the Fuji Hokuroku Aokigahara region! Combined with the preservative formulation and time range, the source is locked—old logging area in the direction of Narasawa Village, eastern part of Aokigahara Forest!"

"No mistake! It really is this formulation! And according to our Sumitomo Forestry records, this specific fiber-structure Japanese cedar, combined with this old preservative, was heavily used in a region that can be further narrowed down to mainly the original forest area from【Fujikawaguchiko Town】to【Narasawa Village】, namely the edge of Aokigahara Forest!"

Boom——!!!

When these three top judgments, respectively from chemistry, industry, and forestry, finally gathered, cross-verified, and pointed to the same unique location, Aokigahara Forest!

"Confirmed! The bomb's production and the ammonium nitrate refined by earth methods came from Aokigahara Forest! "

"It's Aokigahara Forest!"

The entire command center fell into an unprecedented frenzy of boiling excitement!

"Ah~ah~oh!"

Applause, cheers, and relieved shouts nearly lifted the roof! Usually stern detectives embraced each other, and the veteran experts glistened with excited tears!

Success! They did it! With unparalleled collaboration and top-tier scientific strength, they forcibly carved a broad road to the enemy's lair from the fog of the microscopic world!

Uesugi Muneyuki's clenched fists slowly relaxed, and he let out a long breath.

He looked around at every excited and exhausted face, and at Watanabe Director's approving yet firm gaze.

Heroic spirit surged in his chest.

Science knows no bounds, human strength is inexhaustible, united we stand—what fear have we of unsettling demonic vapors?!

"Director! The location has been confirmed—please give the order!" Under everyone's gaze, Uesugi Muneyuki handed the results to Watanabe Eiji.

Watanabe Eiji Director slammed his fist heavily on the command platform, his eyes flashing with the light of discovering prey, his voice slightly hoarse from excitement:

"Well done! Everyone! Target locked—Aokigahara Forest!"

"Special Investigation Headquarters, all units present! Immediately formulate the battle plan! We will uproot the Sakikawa Restoration Army from their fox dens!"