Chapter 66: An Unprecedented Uesugi Craze

Uesugi Muneyuki lived in the Uesugi Hall in Bunkyo Ward from childhood until his first year of high school. After his second year, he went to Gunma to rent a place for a while. By the time he was admitted to Tokyo Medical and Dental University, his family happened to have a student apartment near the university, which had been purchased specifically for his older brother, Uesugi Sadanori, to live in. It worked out perfectly for the younger brother to move in after the older one moved out.

The Yonezawa Uesugi Clan had long since lost its former glory, but by relying on its association with the culture of "Uesugi Kenshin," the prestige of being a family of scholars for generations, and the remaining assets of their feudal estate, they still held quite a bit of real estate after rooting themselves in Bunkyo Ward. His grandfather, as a professor at the University of Tokyo, had a high income, and his father, as the chairman of the Keio University Alumni Association and director of the Cultural Exchange Hall, had also accumulated a substantial family fortune, so the Uesugi family owned many properties within Bunkyo Ward.

Historically, the Peerage was roughly divided into five categories: the Imperial Family, the Old Court Noble Peerage, the Tokugawa Shogunate Peerage, the Feudal Lord Peerage, and the New Merit Peerage. Among them, the Imperial Family, the Old Court Noble Peerage, and the New Merit Peerage were all crushed under the iron fist of Five-Star MacArthur, and most of them lived extremely miserable lives.

Needless to say, the Imperial Family and the Old Court Nobles had been acting as mascots for about a thousand years. Not to mention after the war, even just twenty or thirty years after the Meiji Restoration, these types of peers had already begun to go bankrupt on a large scale.

The New Merit Peerage was used to reward those who contributed to the Meiji Restoration, but these titles were rarely hereditary. Furthermore, the New Merit Peers of the later Taisho and Showa eras were more or less tainted by being "war criminals," to put it mildly. After being thoroughly crushed by the iron fist of Five-Star MacArthur, they also lived miserable lives, though perhaps slightly better than the first two groups.

Those who actually lived quite well were the Tokugawa Shogunate Peerage and a portion of the Feudal Lord Peerage. The Tokugawa family, with two dukes in one house, remained quite prominent to this day, and several other branch families of marquises were also powerful. Although many of the Feudal Lord Peerage had fallen on hard times, a small portion still lived well by relying on their savings and the advantage of their level of education. For example, the head of the Kanazawa Maeda Clan currently served as the Director of the Imperial Household Agency, the head of the Hitachi Satake Clan had continuously served as the Governor of Akita Prefecture, and the head of the Hosokawa Clan had once served as Prime Minister.

Uesugi Hironori had a tower mansion (a high-end hotel-style apartment) in Bunkyo Ward whose lease was just about to expire. It was about 120 square meters, with three rooms, a living room, a kitchen, two toilets, and one bathroom (in Japan, the toilet and bathroom are separate). It was perfect for Uesugi Muneyuki to move into, as he would be graduating next April, and it was indeed a bit awkward to still be living in a student apartment.

But letting Uesugi Muneyuki live there did not mean the property was being transferred. His father had clearly stated that Uesugi Muneyuki could live in the house and sign an agreement to enjoy permanent residential rights, and the family would cover the water, electricity, property management, and property taxes, but the ownership would still belong to the main house. Once Uesugi Muneyuki passed away, the property would have to be returned to the main house.

To be able to live there until death—this was the treatment the family had offered him.

If you can live there for free, why not? Uesugi Muneyuki's thinking was very simple: if I can live there until I die, doesn't that mean this apartment is mine?

After I die, who cares if the world ends?

"That works." Uesugi Muneyuki quickly gave his father a definitive answer.

"Good, then you can go look at the place tomorrow. I'll go handle the arrangements today." After finishing the serious business, Uesugi Hironori suddenly smiled mischievously: "You won't have to go to hotels so often anymore! Muneyuki, just be a little careful not to bring any strange women home!"

"Heh, you certainly think things through, Father." Uesugi Muneyuki sneered twice; it was exactly as he had thought.

It was the same for his fiancé, Shimakawa Ren; all assets before the marriage had already been transferred to the names of his parents, living expenses were covered by the company and trusts, and future income was transferred into funds. There were no gold coins to be mined under his name.

One could only say that after several rounds of modernization, elite Japanese men had become highly guarded against any possible marital extortion.

Putting down the phone, Uesugi Muneyuki nodded to himself. He was not surprised by this result; in fact, he was even a little pleasantly surprised.

Renting in Tokyo is very expensive; this was saving him money.

After finishing his conversation with his father, Uesugi Muneyuki continued to scroll through his missed calls.

Ikeda Erena... does this woman not sleep at night?

He naturally swiped past Ikeda's name and casually checked the two new names in his address book.

Shirakawa Mai and Watanabe Minami.

Uesugi Muneyuki set both of them to "Special Attention."

I can't take it anymore, I can't stand it!

I need Princess Connect right now! After washing up and eating some bread and milk, Uesugi Muneyuki couldn't control himself and dialed a number.

However, the other party indicated that she was in class and asked if tonight would work?

Tonight is fine, but I want it now! Uesugi Muneyuki hung up the phone directly. The side effects of the two Death Soul Contracts had made him, who was usually calm, a bit out of control. After dialing several numbers in a row, he finally found someone who had come to Tokyo from Niigata Prefecture for an Idol Audition who said she was free now.

Let's go!

……………………

Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital, Medical Building small reception room.

A three-tiered Makunouchi Bento was laid out on the table. Several familiar department professors, led by Director Ukai, were sitting together for a small gathering. On the large screen next to them, the public press conference held by the Metropolitan Police Department was playing. The Chief of the Public Relations Division of the Metropolitan Police Department was facing reporters from all over Tokyo, recounting the entire process from the Odaiba Building lockdown incident to the wall-entombed corpse case, and would accept questions from reporters afterward.

"... Ms. Hironaka Mariko, out of sympathy and kindness, revealed to the Dispatched Employee Fukushima Sozaburo the decision regarding the dispatched employees within the station. Fukushima Sozaburo could not accept this result and believed that Ms. Hironaka Mariko had intentionally humiliated him, leading to a crime of passion, after which he hid the body in the wall."

"Fukushima Sozaburo has confessed to the entire process of the crime, and the evidence collected at the scene is consistent with what he described and what was deduced by the Forensic Pathologist at the scene, Uesugi Muneyuki."

"On behalf of the Metropolitan Police Department, I apologize to all citizens for the impact caused by the lockdown incident." After speaking, the Chief of the Public Relations Division of the Metropolitan Police Department stood up and bowed.

At the same time, Fuji TV President Kameyama, who was on the side, suppressed the wild joy in his heart and also stood up to bow toward the camera: "Hontō ni sumimasen~"

There were gasps of surprise in the conference room.

The Fuji TV lockdown Live Broadcast and the wall-entombed corpse case had sparked an unprecedented social craze. The next day, newspaper headlines were all about the Fuji TV Case. Discussions among netizens on the internet easily reached thousands of posts. From NHK to the five major commercial television stations and local television stations, all had temporarily changed their programs to broadcast news about this case in turns.

According to an average viewership rating of 35% among the 50 million population of the Kanto Region, at least 20 million people had watched the Fuji TV Live Broadcast.

Everyone was paying attention to the Metropolitan Police Department's press conference the next day.

But when the press conference was actually held, the public was shocked by the twisted truth behind the case, and knowing that Hironaka Mariko had died for such a ridiculous reason—simply because of her pure kindness—made them even more furious.

Today was supposed to be the day of her wedding!

The Metropolitan Police Department described the case, Fuji TV explained the reasons, and finally, Hironaka Mariko's mother also attended the press conference.

This old woman cried to the camera and said: "I can no longer see Mariko appear on the weather forecast, I can no longer see her in her wedding dress, I will only be able to see my daughter in my dreams from now on... I hope her passing can allow Fuji TV to provide a safer working environment for every staff member."

The old woman's statement also made everyone present sigh.

In the conference room, the table was filled with three-tiered high-end bento boxes. Director Ukai used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of King Crab Tempura, eating it unhurriedly, and even let out a yawn.

He had been called out of bed by a phone call from the Metropolitan Police Department last night. The Metropolitan Police Department had to concede significant benefits to get this Medical Department Director to sign off.

"You've done a great service, Uesugi-kun. In this way, the reputation of our hospital will spread across the entire main island along with this on-site autopsy and deduction." Director Ukai said with a chuckle to Professor Okochi behind him: "Professor Okochi, you have a good student."

"............" Professor Okochi frowned.

"Zaizen-kun, you should learn a little too. Once we encounter a difficult patient, the only thing we need to do is to follow the procedures, follow the rules and regulations, and follow the handling methods in the standard textbooks to ensure safety after the fact. As for whether the condition can be cured or whether the patient can afford it, that is not within our scope of consideration." Director Ukai, finding himself ignored, had to say to Professor Zaizen behind him: "The matter of this Miss Hironaka follows this same logic."

"Communicating with anyone involves a communication cost problem. Some people can understand what you mean very easily, while others cannot. Knowledge level can only influence communication costs to a certain extent; some illiterate people understand as soon as you say it, while others are already Associate Professors, like Satomi-kun in Internal Medicine—it's truly been said so many times and he still doesn't understand." Director Ukai exhorted: "What we should do at this time is to let them follow the compliant process. Never learn from Miss Hironaka, thinking you are doing a good deed, only to lose your life."

"Yes." Professor Zaizen nodded.

On the screen, reporters began to ask questions.

"May I ask why the Forensic Pathologist who performed the on-site autopsy, Mr. Uesugi Muneyuki, did not attend this press conference?"

The Metropolitan Police Department was prepared: "Uesugi-san is in poor health due to continuous work and staying up late, so he went home to rest."

In reality, the Metropolitan Police Department understood Uesugi Muneyuki's temper and was afraid he would say something reckless at the press conference, so they simply didn't let him attend.

"May I ask Fuji TV, regarding this tragedy, how does Fuji TV plan to handle the aftermath?"

President Kameyama laughed inwardly, thinking: this is a tragedy? This is clearly a huge blessing!

But this old bastard still put on a sad face: "All employees of this station will deeply reflect on this tragedy. In the future, this station will also be committed to providing a safer working environment for staff... Due to the incident involving a dispatched employee, this station will dismiss all dispatched employees at once and recruit again later."

The Fuji TV executives next to him couldn't help but want to laugh: this old bastard had wanted to do this for a long time; this time he finally found the perfect excuse.

"Hello, I am Matsui from Asahi Shimbun. May I ask, in the incident, why did the culprit immediately choose to believe it when Ms. Hironaka Mariko revealed this possibility?" Another reporter came up to ask a question.

"As for that, actually we aren't clear either." President Kameyama felt a jolt in his heart, then said in a pained voice: "Perhaps in the perpetrator's eyes, the victim was a Regular Employee, so it wouldn't be strange for them to know inside information; the perpetrator's educational level was low to begin with, and they were irritable and violent."

Fuji TV has already sealed their lips and will absolutely not admit that Hironaka Mariko is always able to get some gossip from the higher-ups.

"May I ask the Metropolitan Police Department, will we be able to see Mr. Uesugi Muneyuki perform on-site Autopsy in the future?" The reporter from Weekly Bunshun was as excited as if they had taken drugs: "Also, can you introduce us in detail to that Judo beauty policewoman? Why did she not appear either?"

"The Metropolitan Police Department has already reached a formal cooperation with the Tokyo Medical and Dental University; in the future, everyone will certainly continue to see Mr. Uesugi appear at the scene. He is now the official Field Consultant for the Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Investigation Department Forensics Division."

"As for that Judo beauty policewoman, out of personal privacy, she is not accepting interviews, and it is not convenient to disclose her identity."

Weekly Bunshun did not get the answer they wanted, so they simply pressed on: "According to the hospital's preliminary diagnosis, the perpetrator has multiple rib fractures, leg bone and spinal fractures, and internal bleeding. Did this Judo policewoman use excessive force in self-defense?"

"Regarding the issue of excessive force in self-defense, the Metropolitan Police Department has already submitted it to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. After investigation by the prosecutors, it was confirmed as legitimate self-defense, and since the perpetrator was holding a blade at the time and posed a danger, the prosecutors will not file charges over this matter." The Metropolitan Police Department's attitude was very cold.

Although the Metropolitan Police Department does not like Ikeda Erena either, on this matter, the Metropolitan Police Department will support her with all its strength.

Weekly Bunshun felt very disappointed by this, but they no longer had the opportunity to ask questions.

"Will the Metropolitan Police Department consider on-site investigations in the form of a Live Broadcast in the future?"

"This... I can only say it will be considered, but involving investigative intelligence and personal privacy, in many situations, we still have to respect the law."

"Why did the report come in on Friday, but the Metropolitan Police Department only started the investigation on Monday?"

"Adults are not officially reported as missing within 24 hours. Considering the missing person's vacation factors and police force factors, starting the investigation on Monday was a reasonable judgment. Of course, this department still must apologize for this matter."

"The Metropolitan Police Department has demonstrated unprecedented efficiency and decisiveness to our citizens this time. May I ask if you have the confidence to maintain this in the future?"

"Our Metropolitan Police Department always views maintaining the life, property, and physical safety of all citizens as our primary mission, so please look forward to our future performance!"

The press conference ended successfully, and everyone praised the Metropolitan Police Department's performance this time.

"A complete victory, Metropolitan Police Department." Director Ukai smiled meaningfully, then said to Professor Okochi behind him: "Since Uesugi-kun is so capable, let him specialize in Autopsy and be tied to the Metropolitan Police Department."

"As for things inside the hospital, he shouldn't concern himself with them anymore. Pathology and such... Professor Okochi, you should have other students responsible for that, right?"

"Wait until he is promoted to Specialized Physician, then assign him a dedicated department and one or two people to specifically be responsible for looking at dead bodies." Director Ukai shook his head: "Otherwise, looking at Uesugi-kun's personality and his habit of speaking bluntly, it's hard to say when he might end up stabbed like Hironaka Mariko."

"That is also fine." Professor Okochi expressed his agreement this time.

"Heh heh, he's famous now, Uesugi-kun!" A hint of a meaningful smile appeared on the corner of Director Ukai's mouth.

It seems this guy isn't some tengu, but a true genius!

Is it possible to introduce a few daughters from within the medical world to get to know him?

Wait, he seems to be a second son, right?

The wrinkles on the director's forehead became denser.

A second son of a Noble, aren't they always meant to be sold off~

Two updates a day is so much pressure.

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(End of this chapter)