Chapter 76: The Visitor from Chiba

In late October, autumn slowly departed, carrying away the last of the hot winds, preparing to enter winter.

Chiba Prefecture is located east of Tokyo Metropolis and is an important part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, one of Japan's three major urban circles; it belongs to the Kanto region of Japan. Situated on the eastern side of the capital region, it is composed of the Kanto Plain in the north and the Boso Peninsula in the central and southern parts. The famous Narita International Airport is located here, as is the Tokyo Disneyland Theme Park.

It might be difficult for everyone to understand the status of Chiba Prefecture relative to Tokyo Metropolis, so here is a very simple and easy-to-understand analogy.

To Tokyo Metropolis, Chiba Prefecture is Tokyo's "Tongzhou."

Even saying this is already a bit of an insult to Chiba Prefecture's status; Chiba Prefecture actually represents the "divine capital" beyond the Fifth Ring Road. Similarly, Saitama and Kanagawa hold similar statuses.

These places are effectively inhabited by a massive number of "Tokyoites," but due to land prices, rent, and the cost of living, many office workers do not have the ability to settle in Tokyo Metropolis and can only take a step back to live in Kanagawa, Saitama, or Chiba. Likewise, many industries in Tokyo Metropolis have gradually moved out to these places due to factors like land prices, rent, and labor costs.

Japan's subway and Shinkansen systems are very developed and have already achieved commuter-level Shinkansen service. Even if one lives in the surrounding prefectures, the commute time can generally be kept to around one hour. Thus, many office workers with low wages live in the surrounding cities and take the subway or Shinkansen to work. Corresponding to China, this is like living outside the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Shenzhen, and commuting by subway or high-speed rail daily.

This morning, at a large foreign trade warehouse at the Chiba Prefecture pier.

Because the warehousing costs in Tokyo Metropolis are extremely high, many large companies set up their warehouses in areas like Chiba Prefecture and Kanagawa Prefecture, especially near the piers, to facilitate transportation.

The pier manager is a man in his fifties who previously worked in the Maritime Self-Defense Force. After he left, he went into shipping, but when he couldn't keep up with shipping anymore, he was assigned to be a pier manager, and he has been living quite comfortably.

"So stinky!" The man covered his nose: "Isn't the C2 Warehouse abandoned? What on earth is inside, why is it so stinky?"

The seabirds at the pier seemed to respond to the man's question, letting out long cries and flapping their wings as they flew away. The seawater at the pier washed against the seawall, and a strong, salty, fishy smell rushed toward him, but none of this could mask the intense stench coming from nearby.

The man felt very strange.

The fishing industry in Tokyo Bay has basically died out due to severe pollution; very few fishing boats fish in the inner bay waters, and what remains is mostly aquaculture.

Where did the stench come from?

A new missing person notice was posted on the utility pole nearby; it seemed a male elementary school student had gone missing. After thinking it over, the man felt it had reached the point where he had to go and take a look.

The pier, especially these large warehouses, is actually not very safe; many gang deals and dirty things happen here. The man usually turns a blind eye to these things; as long as it doesn't cause a scene, he pretends he didn't see it.

The C2 Warehouse was also an abandoned warehouse.

"Is anyone there?" The man opened the warehouse door, repeatedly confirming whether there was anyone inside: "I'm the manager, excuse me!"

"Is anyone there?" Entering the warehouse, a strong, foul stench rushed toward him. The man cautiously turned his back to the light and lit his flashlight to check the situation inside the warehouse: "Is anyone here?"

The light inside the warehouse was very dim. Following the stench, the man slowly shone his flashlight onto something.

That thing looked like a human torso. At first, the man thought it was a mannequin structure or a human model, or perhaps a plastic doll, because there were no bloodstains on it.

However, when the man tried to get closer, a head placed on a canvas of discarded materials caught his attention.

What the? You scared me!

The man thought to himself, what kind of mannequin has its head and body separated?

Comforting himself this way, the man slowly approached.

And once he got closer, he didn't know until he looked, and once he looked, he was terrified!

This was no mannequin model; this was clearly a human head! A decapitated human head!

"Ahhhhhhh!!!" The manager was scared out of his wits, sat down on the ground with a thud, smashed his flashlight to pieces, his legs twitched on the ground a few times, and he scrambled away, rolling and crawling.

However, having served in the Maritime Self-Defense Force after all, the manager recovered a bit after rushing out of the warehouse and immediately dialed the police.

Twenty minutes later, the Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters led a large group of police officers to arrive and immediately cordoned off the scene.

Police sirens blared, yellow tape was pulled up, and Superintendent Yukinoshita Hachiman of the Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters stared fixedly at the head with his dead-fish eyes, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks.

Isn't this... that missing 11-year-old male elementary school student, Doi Junpei?

The police officers on the scene all remembered the elementary school student disappearance case from a while ago.

Looking again at the decapitated head in the warehouse and the corpse left to the side, the Chiba Prefecture police officers broke out in a cold sweat.

Now, things had gotten serious!

A murder and dismemberment case, and the victim was an elementary school student?

Will we even have a chance to celebrate the New Year this year?

……………………

Tokyo Metropolis, Metropolitan Police Department, cafeteria.

"I'm digging in!" Uesugi Muneyuki sat in the cafeteria. He ordered an extra-large bowl of beef rice with an egg, and also paired it with kimchi miso soup and a side of fried pork cutlet, full of enthusiasm.

It had been over half a month since he was transferred to the Metropolitan Police Department, and Uesugi Muneyuki had quickly adapted to his new life in the Forensics Division of the Metropolitan Police Department.

The only thing he wasn't quite used to was that Ikeda Erena hadn't been transferred to the Metropolitan Police Department with him; she was still at Otsuka Station.

Uesugi Muneyuki was still performing autopsies for a bunch of police stations in western and central Tokyo, but because he had started holding a concurrent position in the Metropolitan Police Department's Forensics Division, once a case involving the Metropolitan Police Department's investigation arose, Uesugi Muneyuki had to interrupt his other business and focus on serving the Metropolitan Police Department.

His income of ten thousand per autopsy had actually decreased; the Metropolitan Police Department's Forensics Division wouldn't pay Uesugi Muneyuki extra autopsy fees. In their view, the autopsy fee was already included in the salary of a Field Consultant.

So Uesugi Muneyuki's income didn't see a significant increase; he just relied on the concurrent position to get the title of assisting in investigations and received official permission to enter and exit the Metropolitan Police Department at will.

Minami always felt that this arrangement was a bit unfair, but Uesugi Muneyuki didn't have any opinions; he wasn't mainly after the money anyway.

So, how was Uesugi Muneyuki's autopsy skill?

Explosive.

On-site autopsies, determining suicide, homicide, or accidental death at a glance, directly demonstrating the process of death, easily determining the deceased's surrounding relationships through life reaction, without needing dissection, without needing lab tests, and without even needing interrogation.

Having been on the job for only half a month, Uesugi Muneyuki had already demonstrated his miraculous autopsy performance to the Metropolitan Police Department on-site.

The cause was a little girl who, while playing at home, accidentally knocked over boiling water that was being heated on the gas stove. The boiling water tilted and fell onto the child's back, causing severe burns.

The girl was then sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, but after two days of rescue, she still died. The Attending Physician issued a death certificate for accidental death by burns, judging it an accident.

But this type of case is generally considered an "unnatural death." The girl's father also had doubts about his daughter's death. It just so happened that Uesugi Muneyuki already had a reputation, and the Fuji TV Case had left a deep impression on people, so he called the police and requested the Metropolitan Police Department to investigate.

Uesugi Muneyuki took over the case, and his first sentence was "homicide."

The Metropolitan Police Department was left stunned.

Uesugi Muneyuki peeled back the deceased's clothes and found a circular burn on her back. This burn was clearly different from the burns on other parts of the body, with the degree of burning decreasing from the center to the surroundings. Uesugi Muneyuki gave the conclusion first before presenting the evidence.

Because knocking over boiling water should have resulted in an irregular shape, there was no reason for a circular burn to appear. Uesugi Muneyuki immediately pointed out that it was done by the deceased's stepmother.

It turned out that the little girl's family was a reconstituted family. The father doted on his own daughter more, and the stepmother, being a housewife with no source of income, had always resented the father's favoritism and worried that her own child would not receive enough financial support, so she came up with this scheme to get rid of this thorn in her side.

After some interrogation, how could a housewife withstand Uesugi Muneyuki's pixel-level reconstruction of the scene and the pressure from the police? She confessed on the spot.

This entire operation left the Metropolitan Police Department completely numb.

This works too?

Numb.

The detectives from the First Investigation Division of the Metropolitan Police Department at the scene thought exactly this.

Numbness aside, it was also very satisfying; they responded to the call, investigated, interrogated, and closed the case all on the same day.

When they delivered the materials to the District Public Prosecutors Office, the District Public Prosecutors Office was also numb.

This works too?

The prosecutors took the report with great annoyance; the fingerprint evidence, laboratory evidence, and crime scene reconstruction were even—damn it—added after the fact, following the testimonies.

"Little Brother Uesugi is getting better and better at ordering dishes." Police Inspector Megure sat opposite Uesugi Muneyuki and said with a chuckle: "You eat in the cafeteria every day, doesn't Little Brother Uesugi cook for himself?"

"I'm exhausted, why would I bother cooking." Uesugi Muneyuki shoveled food into his mouth; ever since he joined the Metropolitan Police Department, he had been eating in the Metropolitan Police Department cafeteria all day, sometimes eating two portions by himself when hungry (after all, the appetite of Japanese people is small to begin with), and he soon earned the nickname of a big eater in the Metropolitan Police Department, with some also calling him "Gourmet Uesugi," mostly as good-natured teasing: "And Megure-san, you have to understand me, dealing with corpses all day, what mood would I be in to study recipes? As long as what I make is edible, that's enough."

"Haha, that's true, at home my wife does the cooking, and her level is alright." Police Inspector Megure laughed and pursed his lips: "But it certainly can't compare to your mother's, right, Police Inspector Watanabe?"

Watanabe Minami sat to the side, smiling without a word.

Watanabe Minami's mother, Watanabe Michiko, had an extremely high level of cooking skill and enjoyed the title of "Queen of the Culinary World."

Could it be time to learn cooking from Mother?

Miss Minami watched Uesugi Muneyuki wolfing down his food, calculating in her heart.

Just at this moment, the large screen in the cafeteria suddenly interrupted with a news broadcast.

"Breaking news, a major dismemberment murder case has occurred in Chiba Prefecture!"

"The deceased is Sugasawa Gen (pseudonym), an 11-year-old elementary school student who was reported missing by his family recently; he went missing after going out to play after school on October 17, and his remains were later discovered by a pier manager in an abandoned warehouse."

"The deceased had his head severed with a sharp blade, and the perpetrator's methods were extremely cruel."

"Currently, the Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters is investigating the case, and if there are any new developments, this station will report them immediately!"

A new major case is about to begin.

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(End of chapter)