Chapter 696

Uesugi Muneyuki's judgment can be described as earth-shattering.

"So————" Inspector Yamanaka's voice was somewhat dry: "All our previous sweeps—community, internet, fan circles, recorded offenders—have we been going in the wrong direction?"

"Not entirely wrong, but the core direction does indeed have a blind spot." Uesugi Muneyuki pointed to the red marks on the map: "We need to adjust our strategy immediately. Abandon large-scale dragnets, organize lean teams, and conduct a dragnet-style, infiltration-style ground search on these gaps" on the map. Not relying on household registration and records, but on the most primitive footprints,

traces, and living traces (such as shacks, bonfires, garbage piles), and————"

Uesugi Muneyuki turned his gaze toward Mai Xuejie beside him: "Mai, we need your help!"

"Understood." Mai Xuejie, seeing her beloved junior student again spring into action, her pair of sparkling beautiful eyes radiating light ten thousand zhang: "I will contact the local shrines."

As a local powerhouse of the Kantou Shinai Alliance, the local shrines absolutely know many things, understand much content, she opened □, the shrine side will absolutely cooperate at the first moment, assisting Uesugi Muneyuki and the Yamagata Prefecture Police in the search!

"Inspector! Inspector!" At this moment, a detective ran over: "The Metropolitan Police Department is inquiring, whether support is needed?"

Inspector Yamanaka's expression hesitated for a moment, he suddenly looked toward Uesugi Muneyuki.

Metropolitan Police Department, coming again to steal credit?

But, if Uesugi Muneyuki speaks up————this person is the investigative core of the Kantou and even the entire Japanese police, when he says it, it is so!

However, Uesugi Muneyuki merely frowned, without speaking.

"We already have some leads! Metropolitan Police Department reinforcement is unnecessary, notify the prefectural inspector and Ryutatsu department head, we already have a clear target, we will definitely apprehend before dawn tomorrow!"

"Yes!" Many police officers responded in unison.

"Immediately search for possible items or graffiti related to that symbol" or similar distorted beliefs! Simultaneously, contact local social welfare agencies, night patrol volunteers, and even long-term scavengers active in these areas, to gather intelligence. Target clear: find a male homeless vagrant who may recently be abnormally excited or tense, possessing a sharp heavy cutting tool, and whose body carries a strong smell of iron rust and old paper mold."

The order was swiftly issued.

This time, no one questioned again.

The local police's violence machine once again started up, but the driving energy, already shifted from upper-level pressure and vague speculation, to clear targets and an imminent sense of crisis.

Watching the officers' hurriedly departing silhouettes, Inspector Yamanaka walked to Uesugi Muneyuki's side, remained silent for a long time, then softly said: "Uesugi Chief————sorry, before we still had some doubts about you————"

"Doubts are normal, actually I myself cannot fully believe either." Uesugi Muneyuki waved his hand, his gaze still falling on those dark corners of the map: "But time is urgent, Inspector. Find him, then we will know whether behind this is pure madness, or if there truly is a deeper darkness we have yet to touch."

"With Uesugi-san's support! We will definitely succeed!"

The last remnant of twilight's glow completely vanished, Yonezawa City was shrouded in night.

And at the city's edge, those blank gaps on the map, a hunt targeting shadows, formally began.

Until this moment, the Yamagata Prefecture police truly realized, the so-called "legendary forensic doctor"'s strength, is not merely reading corpses, but being able to see through societal fractures, in the blind spots everyone overlooks, precisely locating the killer's outline, and this "seeing" based on rigorous science and extraordinary insight, compared to any intuition or luck, is all the more shocking and awe-inspiring.

Without Tokyo University's professional instruments, without the Metropolitan Police elites' cocoon-stripping thread-pulling, even lacking the support of the Forensic Science Laboratory.

Uesugi Muneyuki merely relied on limited test results, personal experience, and autopsy findings, to sketch out a complete portrait!

Indeed, fame is not without substance!

The wisdom of our ancestors, is inexhaustible!

Outside, the Fuji TV filming crew was also extremely excited, the Tobu anchor roared into the microphone: "Police have begun action! Police have begun action! What does this mean? This means there is already a target! It must be Uesugi Chief, he again, again and again and again and again, once more, with extreme speed, found the suspect!"

"We will now go interview Uesugi Chief, ask for his opinion, any news, transmit anytime! Fuji TV here is reporting for you!"

Action unfolded under the cover of night.

The Yamagata Prefecture Police Headquarters dispatched dozens of lean teams, each five people, conducting silent infiltration according to Uesugi Muneyuki's defined "gap zones".

Meanwhile, the local shrines, local powers, and welfare agencies also revealed some locations where homeless vagrants exist.

Ōsumikawa then analyzed these locations, quickly through his perception of trace elements, locked onto a place abandoned for over twenty years—the Shōwa Paper Factory. Here piled like mountain rotten pulp raw materials, rusted broken machinery,

and a labyrinthine ruin structure, perfectly matching the "iron rust and old paper" odor source speculation.

"Deploy!!!"

The night was thick, only the flashlight beams cut through the heavy darkness and spiderwebs.

The air was filled with pungent moldy smell, iron rust smell, and a certain animal den-like fishy odor.

The police stepped on creaking rotten floorboards and debris, nerves taut.

"Inspector, this way!" A team member lowered his voice, flashlight beam fixed on a half-collapsed warehouse wall corner.

There was a shelter entrance crudely built from torn plastic sheets, cardboard, and rusted iron sheets, around lay empty cans, wine bottles, and a pile of picked-up junk, among which were indeed several damp rotten pornographic magazines and some idol promotional pages violently torn apart.

More importantly, outside the shelter hung a dark, coarse-heavy canvas coat.

Inspector Yamanaka made a tactical hand signal, team members silently dispersed, surrounding the shelter.

He took a deep breath, smelled that familiar, nauseating mixed odor: iron rust, old paper, mold, sweat stench, and————a trace of extremely faint bloodiness.

"Person inside! We are police! Come out!" Inspector Yamanaka shouted sternly, simultaneously the strong beam flashlight violently shot toward the shelter entrance.

Inside the shelter, deathly silence for an instant, then erupted a non-human, muddled low growl, like a wounded beast.

The rotten barrier was violently shoved open from inside, a black shadow wrapped in stench lunged out!

It was a short, sturdy man, his hair and beard tangled like grass. His face was covered in thick grime, almost unable to see his features, only a pair of eyes that, under the strong light, shrank to pinpricks, flashing with madness and fear.

His left hand clenched a fist, but his right hand clearly gripped a knife nearly half a meter long, rust spots mottled, but the blade edge had been roughly ground with a whetstone to emit a terrifying cold light, a heavy paper cutter! The blade shape highly matched Uesugi's inferred "extremely thin and straight" weapon characteristics.

"Get lost! All of you get lost!" He roared, voice hoarse and broken, waving the paper cutter, lawlessly yet full of brute force, chopping at the nearest police.

The blade sliced the air, emitting a dull howl.

"Careful!" Team members quickly retreated, forming a encirclement, riot batons and forks extended.

The vagrant like a trapped beast, eyes blood-red, mouth uttering meaningless howls, occasionally mixed with a few broken, incomprehensible curses or mumbled words: "Disgusting! So TMD disgusting ah ah ah ah!"

His attack was violent and chaotic, but obviously lacked training, mainly relying on a brute's ferocity, street-fighting technique, and the intimidation of the weapon in hand.

One police tried to pin his arm with a riot fork, but he was violently shaken loose, the paper cutter顺势 chopped the metal shaft of the riot fork, sending up a stream of sparks! Another police seized the opportunity, sprayed tear gas toward his face.

"Ugh—!" The vagrant emitted a painful howl, vision obstructed, movements more chaotic.

He wildly waved the knife, charging toward the weak point of the encirclement, trying to flee back into the ruins' depths.

"Don't let him in!" Inspector Yamanaka roared.

The factory ruins terrain complex, once he escaped in, nighttime capture would be extremely difficult.

At the critical moment, a tall patrol officer from the side lunged forward, risking being sliced by the blade, used his heavy stab-resistant vest's shoulder to heavily strike the vagrant's flank.

The vagrant stumbled, and the knife in his hand lagged half a beat.

Another officer's baton struck precisely on the wrist holding the knife.

"Clang!" The extremely sharp heavy-duty box cutter flew from his hand and landed among the debris.

Having lost his greatest reliance, the vagrant's ferocity intensified; he actually opened his filthy black fingernails, howling as he lunged at the nearest officer, attempting to tear and bite with his teeth.

But at this moment, several officers swarmed forward, using their numerical and equipment advantage, finally pinning him firmly to the ground.

Even after being subdued, he continued to thrash wildly and howl, spewing vulgarities and incoherent curses; with his limbs cuffed, he even slammed his head against the ground until a riot helmet was placed on him.

"Examine!" Inspector Yamanaka panted, issuing the command.

An officer lifted the vagrant's cuffed right hand; under the strong light, that hand was rough as old tree bark, with black mud and suspected dark red bloodstains packed under the nails, and the palm and fingertips covered in thick calluses and fresh scratches—fully consistent with the description of "tree bark-like roughness."

And the pungent odor emanating from him was precisely the mixture of iron rust, old paper, mold, and sweat.

The police quickly searched the crude shelter. The scene inside was nauseating, but amidst the piled junk, they found more: several sections of the same nylon rope, a pair of pants stained with large amounts of dark grime, some scattered cheap cigarette butts, and in a rusted iron box, carefully stored were several oddly shaped amulets and a torn paper bearing twisted symbols—those symbols, while not exactly matching the bloody writing in the toilet, still conveyed a related twisted feeling.

"Ah, like that strange symbol!" an officer shouted.

"That's him."

Inspector Yamanaka, who had said this line for the third time today, looked at the still-struggling, sniffling vagrant and spoke into the radio in a deep voice: "Target apprehended. Repeat, the target matching all of Uesugi Forensic Pathologist's profile characteristics has been apprehended. Request the Forensic Identification Division and forensic pathologist to immediately support the crime scene investigation!"

"Received, received!"

At the other end of the radio, Uesugi Muneyuki, who had been silently waiting, slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again.

It appears the suspect has been caught.

But the real challenge has only just begun!

This guy might indeed be the killer.

But the true mastermind behind all this, the one who actually directed and created everything, is very likely not him!

If that is the case, then what does the person behind the scenes want to achieve through Nishino Miki's death?