Chapter 657: The Enemy Is in Nagatacho!

Inside the Metropolitan Police Department's Special Mission Unit office, even though it was nearly midnight, the lights still blazed bright.

The initial intensive interrogation after Kurashi Junxiong was escorted to the detention center did not go smoothly; aside from endlessly cursing the police and his father, he met every question about the "Sakikawa Restoration Army's" internal structure, next steps, and especially Sato Liang's identity and whereabouts with nothing but silence or mockery. The escape of those two accomplices was like two thorns stuck in the heart of everyone who had taken part in the operation.

Uesugi Muneyuki stood alone before the whiteboard, which was plastered with case-related photos, clue diagrams, and relationship charts.

Kurashi Junxiong's manic laughter before his arrest — "Tatsuya! Kenji! Well done!" — echoed repeatedly in his mind's eye. Not merely because of the escape itself, but because of that fearless, twisted confidence, as if certain his accomplices would bring an even greater "surprise."

"Merely gloating over a successful escape? Or — do they have other backing? Or, is their value not merely that they are armed personnel of the 'Sakikawa Restoration Army'?" Uesugi Muneyuki's instinct told him those two accomplices' backgrounds might be more critical than they appeared on the surface.

"Okada." He turned and called to Okada Masayoshi of the Career Track, who was organizing reports: "Need to borrow your connection network."

"Investigation Division 2 side?" Okada Masayoshi sighed, "Tool man, huh?"

"Yeah, the Public Security side, and Investigation Division 2 (handling intellectual and economic crimes) — can you have them dig deeper into Tatsuya and Kenji's backgrounds? Not just simple criminal records; I want family backgrounds, social connections, especially — possible links to the political or financial circles."

Okada Masayoshi and Nanxiang Yui exchanged a glance, instantly grasping Uesugi Muneyuki's intent.

One of the Career Track's advantages is the invisible personal connections their families or they themselves have accumulated, infiltrating every government department.

"Leave it to us." Okada Masayoshi replied briefly, picking up his mobile phone and walking to one side. Nanxiang Yui also immediately began contacting her old acquaintances in the financial world and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

On the other side of the Special Mission Unit, Kai Toru, Ikeda Erena, and the others sat together eating bento; Erena looked somewhat dejected.

No helping it; no matter how high your kung fu, you can't beat guns and cannons.

The other side had guns, and even homemade incendiary bottles!

This was something Erena, with all her kung fu, couldn't handle; Minami, seeing this, could only comfort her a little.

As for Uesugi's side, Okada and the others were astonishingly efficient. In under two hours, encrypted documents compiled through informal channels were delivered one after another to Uesugi Muneyuki's desk.

Public Security system internal files, fragments of unpublished investigation notes from the District Public Prosecutors Office Special Investigation Department, even drafts of sealed news reports — pried loose by specific connections, they gradually pieced together a heart-stopping picture.

Fujisaki Tatsuya and Fujisaki Kenji were not ordinary unemployed radical youths.

Their father, Fujisaki Masatoshi, had been a House of Representatives member and chief secretary to the LDP senior lawmaker Meguro Kotaro, deeply trusted.

Meguro Kotaro, along with two other National Diet members, were known as the "Chiba Three Person Crowd"; the other two were Akiyama Tadashi and Kurosu Issei.

Kurosu Issei at the time served as the ruling party's Policy Research Council Chairman — the position currently held by former National Public Safety Commission Chairman Higashi Kotaro.

Roughly ten years ago, a black-money scandal involving public works bidding erupted, its spearhead pointing straight at Meguro Kotaro and the faction behind him. The then-red-hot Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office Special Investigation Department intervened to investigate.

As secretary, Fujisaki Masatoshi was considered one of the core figures who handled the concrete operations and grasped key evidence.

However, on the eve of the Special Investigation Department's planned compulsory interrogation of Fujisaki Masatoshi, he was discovered in his home study having "committed suicide," a will left at the scene admitting all charges and stating "Everything was my personal doing, nothing to do with Mr. Meguro." With the key witness dead, the trail went cold; coupled with intra-party pressure, the Special Investigation Department's investigation ultimately amounted to much ado about nothing. The Chiba Three Person Crowd, though temporarily damaged in reputation, were not formally indicted, merely apologizing for "failure to manage subordinates," and before long, through intra-party mediation, even advanced to important party posts — Policy Research Council Chairman.

Their father's "suicide" and the ensuing stigmatization caused the still-underage Fujisaki brothers to plummet from heaven's darlings to the dust overnight.

They firmly believed their father was a scapegoat, forced to "commit suicide" to protect his superiors and the larger interest groups behind them.

Appeals went nowhere; instead, repeated fierce protests and clashes with relevant institutions landed them in juvenile detention.

It is highly probable that in juvenile detention they came into contact with even more extreme ideology, and were ultimately drawn to the "Sakikawa Restoration Army's" philosophy and promise of revenge.

And the faction the Chiba Three Person Crowd belonged to at the time was precisely Yuasa Masamichi's "Hozankai."

"Yuasa Masamichi —" Uesugi Muneyuki stared at the photo in the documents of this senior lawmaker, beaming as he chatted and laughed with celebrities at a wedding, his brow tightly knit.

The case implicates National Diet members, especially a heavyweight who once served as party Secretary General — already extremely thorny.

But deeper Public Security intelligence and certain extremely hidden Investigation Division 2 archived records show the Fujisaki Masatoshi "suicide" case itself had multiple suspicious points; at the time, Special Investigation Department prosecutors already suspected it was not a simple suicide, possibly involving silencing.

And the higher-level force that suppressed the matter and ultimately let the case die without resolution — the vague shadow of the trail faintly pointed to the man who at the time served as Cabinet Secretariat Deputy Chief Secretary, now the Prime Minister — Oowada!

A vague entry in the report mentioned "concern from the highest level of Nagatacho" and a "reminder about investigative appropriateness." Though no direct evidence exists, combined with the timing, the figures' promotion trajectories (Yuasa Masamichi still promoted to Secretary General after the incident, Oowada rising steadily to become Prime Minister), and the Japanese political world's deeply entrenched factional protection network, the implication sends a chill down one's spine.

A violent gang boss's son, two sons of former lawmaker secretaries (likely political sacrificial lambs), formed the "Sakikawa Restoration Army's" armed core.

Their assassination target (Akiyama Tadashi) was an extreme conservative former senior official, and now it drags out a political scandal from ten years ago possibly involving the current Prime Minister and party bigwigs, and a suspected silencing case —

Uesugi Muneyuki set down the documents, walked to the window, gazed at Tokyo's brilliant yet cold nightscape, and let out a long, silent sigh.

In the end, he couldn't hold back, and laughed.

TMD, how did the country end up like this!

Investigate a case, investigate a case — in the end, the case always TMD leads back to the National Diet, the Cabinet, those high-and-mighty places!

Because the root of evil often lies not in the dark corners of streets and alleys, but in those brilliantly lit halls of power. Money, power, protection, deals, silencing, scapegoating — these constitute a solid and hidden system.

Violent gangs, extremist organizations, even individual deranged criminals — sometimes they are merely pustules overflowing from this system, or deformed products of internal struggles within the system.

And ones like the Sakikawa Restoration Army are the system's crushed sacrifices, transformed in despair into vengeful evil spirits.

Uesugi Muneyuki suddenly recalled a domestic drama he once liked most, "Detective Di Renjie."

Almost every case in it was a nationwide sensation; every case was severe enough to shake the nation's foundations; Di Renjie, Lord Di, Grand Secretary Di, Pang Ling — which time was he not shouldering a heavy mission, acting with discretionary authority, executing heaven's hunt?

Result: every major case, investigated back and forth, would ultimately trace back to Wu Zetian!

The Envoy Massacre, the Blue Shirt Record, the Blood-Dripping Eagle, the Frontier River Doubtful Shadows, the Snake Spirit, the Blood-Colored Jiangzhou — the ultimate root and essence of these cases all stemmed from this Empress Wu's bloody slaughter and massive frame-ups, forged proclamations, and palace intrigues during her rise to power!

She is the source of all problems and cases.

What "Divinity: Original Sin"?

All disputes and crimes on the Rivellon Continent are essentially caused by the Seven Gods stealing and monopolizing all Source!

But this is precisely the most brilliant part of "Detective Di Renjie"; by the third season "Black Clothed Society" and "Canal Phantom," though no longer related to the Martial Empress, the story instead became less interesting; therefore the Di cases are most brilliant in the first two seasons, when court, imperial clan, former dynasty remnants, Tang sinners, blood cases, injustices, and hatreds are all intertwined.

The enemy is in the Divine Capital!

He recalled Kurashi Junxiong's twisted "purification" theory, and at this moment actually found it held a trace of tragic accuracy —

The "filth" of his father's generation that he hated, compared to this vaster, more glamorous yet also filthier systemic "filth," might just be a case of the lesser seeing the greater.

The enemy is in Nagatacho!

And oneself, to some extent, is both constantly exposing the system's ugliness and serving as the system's accomplice.

"Muneyuki?" Uesugi Minami had entered at some point, holding a cup of hot coffee, handing it to him.

The Minami Ojou-sama's face bore concern: "Any findings? Your complexion looks terrible."

Uesugi Muneyuki took the coffee his wife handed over, feeling the warmth from the cup wall, yet unable to dispel the chill in his heart.

He briefly told Minami the Sakikawa Restoration Army's background and the political darkness it might implicate.

Minami listened, her heroic brows knitting tighter and tighter, finally curving into a cold laugh: "Indeed————it's Nagatacho's same old tricks again. Oowada————Yuasa————"

A sharp light flashed in her eyes: "This is trouble. It involves the sitting Prime Minister and party heavyweights; resistance to the investigation will be unprecedentedly massive. Public Security will probably start hesitating too."

"What worries me even more is still to come." Uesugi Muneyuki's brow furrowed tight: "Minami, have you noticed? The Sakikawa Restoration Army always manages to precisely hit the crucial points, precisely retaliate against targets, precisely tear open old scars?"

Minami Ojou-sama thought for a while, then suddenly nodded hard: "Put that way————you're right! It really is exactly like that!"

"So I have an even more terrifying thought————" Uesugi Muneyuki fell into a long silence, then suddenly said: "I'm afraid the true controller and sponsor behind the Sakikawa Restoration Army————also cannot be separated from Nagatacho."

"We can't stop. But every step from now on must be even more cautious; evidence must be ironclad beyond refutation, otherwise————"

Otherwise, not only will the case be unable to proceed, they themselves, even the entire Special Mission Unit, could be swallowed by invisible forces.

Minami gripped his hand, her grip firm: "Don't forget, Father is the Superintendent General; he will support us. And————"

A trace of resolve flashed in her eyes: "If these people really are connected to the suspected silencing case from years ago, then it's not just a criminal case, it's a political scandal that shakes the nation's foundations. Someone, somewhere, will not allow them to cover the sky with one hand."

Uesugi Muneyuki gripped his wife's hand in return, nodding slightly.

Yes, no matter how deep the darkness, there are always those who persist in lighting a faint glow.

Only, the road ahead is destined to be strewn with thorns and traps.

Vaisravana above, bestow upon me power!