Chapter 77: The Daily Life of the Metropolitan Police Department

The dismemberment case on the large screen caught the attention of Uesugi Muneyuki and the others.

"Murder and dismemberment? And the victim is still a minor?" Uesugi Muneyuki looked in surprise at the news footage, which was so heavily pixelated that nothing could be seen, and an ominous premonition rose in his heart.

"Yes, the nature of this incident is extremely vile." Watanabe Minami, the Face of the Metropolitan Police Department beside him, also spoke with three parts seriousness, a hint of gravity shimmering in her sweet almond-shaped eyes.

In reality, as someone on the Career Track and in the Police Affairs Department, Watanabe Minami knew far more details about this matter than Uesugi Muneyuki and Higurashi Sota.

After discovering this incident, the Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters attached great importance to it, immediately establishing a Special Investigation Headquarters and deploying over a hundred police officers to conduct a comprehensive lockdown of the C2 Warehouse in the wharf area and its surrounding vicinity.

The forensic investigation officially began.

"Oh? Can you tell me about it?" Uesugi Muneyuki became interested; he was, after all, a Forensic Pathologist.

"Since Uesugi-kun is asking, of course, but these are internal matters, so it is best not to spread them." Watanabe Minami signaled for him to keep his voice down, and the Face of the Metropolitan Police Department herself whispered the inside information coming from Chiba Prefecture to Uesugi Muneyuki and Detective Higurashi.

The body was discovered on October 20th, and three days before the body was found, the Doi Yuan family in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, had come to the local Police Station to report that their child, 11-year-old fifth-grade elementary student Doi Yuan Junpei, had gone missing after returning home from school and going back out to play.

The Chiba Prefectural Police did not pay much attention at first, but because it was a missing child, they still dispatched some manpower to assist in the search.

It was fruitless; Doi Yuan Junpei had simply vanished.

Missing on the 17th, body found on the 20th, and cruelly dismembered at that—this earth-shattering tragic news caused the Doi Yuan family to collapse.

The Chiba Prefectural Police also bore immense pressure because of this; they realized this case was extraordinary, and therefore conducted an extremely detailed investigation of the scene.

The investigation results were very strange.

"Very strange?" Uesugi Muneyuki was even more interested, and he frowned: "What do you mean? What is called 'very strange'? Why?"

"The autopsy report from the Chiba Prefecture hospital says that the victim's head was severed right against the chin, without the neck," Watanabe Minami said. "Then, regarding the examination of the body, the Chiba Prefecture hospital said the body had been washed very clean with a large amount of water, very, very clean. No clues could be found on the surface of the body, there was no other human tissue under the fingernails or on the body surface, and there were not even any other external injuries."

"How can that be?" Detective Higurashi also frowned: "If there were no other external injuries, could the murderer have decapitated the victim in one stroke? That would be too..."

"Exactly. And if the cut on the head is smooth and does not include the neck, it indicates the use of extremely professional equipment, such as a surgical scalpel or a specialized cutting machine from a slaughterhouse, or perhaps the body was frozen before being cut," Uesugi Muneyuki said while devouring his pork cutlet. "As for washing the body, that is also a technical task. It is not that it is difficult, but the murderer must have a very strong psychological quality. Without similar experience, few people could complete this act for the first time without leaving any clues."

"Normally, if a person has their arteries cut, they will quickly lose half the blood in their body. This is very common, but the remaining blood in the body will not continue to drain rapidly; it will slowly seep out as the body decomposes. To wash it until there is no blood left at the scene, one must have a large amount of water, knowledge of basic blood-draining techniques, and a formidable psychological state."

"Oh~~~" Detective Higurashi and Watanabe Minami both listened to Uesugi Muneyuki's professional analysis like curious children.

But Watanabe Minami still had half of what she wanted to say left, and she whispered again: "However, the Chiba Prefectural Police made another discovery inside the warehouse..."

"What discovery?!" Uesugi Muneyuki and Detective Higurashi both asked with interest.

"That, I cannot say." Watanabe Minami gave a charming smile and made a zipping motion toward her small mouth: "All I can tell you is that the Public Security has already been dispatched and is heading toward Chiba Prefecture."

Japan's Public Security?

"Then when are we deploying?" Uesugi Muneyuki finished listening and signaled that he was ready.

Watanabe Minami looked at him askance: "Uesugi-kun, have you forgotten something?"

"Huh?"

"The Metropolitan Police Department only manages Tokyo!" Watanabe Minami said with a hint of sarcasm: "This is a case in Chiba Prefecture; naturally, it should be handled by the Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters. Unless Chiba Prefecture requests assistance from the Headquarters, the Headquarters has no reason or excuse to intervene in this case."

"We are not like the Public Security."

"Huh? So we are just going to ignore it?" Uesugi Muneyuki was stunned.

"Yes, we cannot manage it." Watanabe Minami picked up her tray, signaling that she had finished eating, covered her mouth to giggle, let her gaze linger on Uesugi Muneyuki's face, and said with a beaming smile: "Uesugi-kun, see you this afternoon."

As she spoke, her jade feet, wrapped in flesh-colored silk stockings and stepping into standard 5cm black high-heeled shoes, and her proud, noble figure in a standard police skirt uniform swayed as she left in front of Uesugi Muneyuki.

A hazy whiteness showed through the thin flesh-colored silk, but if one looked more closely, one would find that Watanabe Minami's porcelain-like skin was the main tone of her beautiful legs; between the interweaving of flesh-color and white, the faint blue veins on the tops of her feet were also visible.

Uesugi Muneyuki could not help but take a few extra looks. Unlike Ikeda Erena, Watanabe Minami was dressed in this police skirt, silk stockings, and high heels most of the time. Coupled with her outstandingly beautiful face and her state of being sometimes a cool-headed, intelligent, Showa-era static beauty, and sometimes a sarcastic, lively little devil, it was hard for Uesugi Muneyuki not to look at her a few more times.

Seeing this, Detective Higurashi's teasing expression was very rich, and he joked: "How is it? Uesugi-kun? Getting along happily with the Face of the Headquarters?"

"It is indeed quite happy!" Uesugi Muneyuki admitted straightforwardly.

After he entered the Metropolitan Police Department for his secondment, the liaison work for the Metropolitan Police Department was handled by this Face of the Metropolitan Police Department.

The feeling Watanabe Minami gave Uesugi Muneyuki was truly completely different from Ikeda Erena.

With her responsible for communicating with those above and below, Uesugi Muneyuki truly did not need to consider anything. He only needed to be responsible for performing the autopsy, giving judgments, obtaining evidence, and reconstructing the scene. Watanabe Minami would help him handle everything else, and it would be done very cleanly, beautifully, and in full compliance with regulations.

Compared to acting with Erena, where he had to be both father and mother and worry about whether she could accept things, with Miss Minami, Uesugi Muneyuki felt he had simply become a young master who had everything done for him. Miss Minami arranged everything inside and out; he only needed to be responsible for the autopsy, deduction, and solving the case.

Moreover, in their daily interactions, the understanding Miss Minami did not need to be reminded at all. When Uesugi Muneyuki needed to be articulate, she was responsible for silence; when Uesugi Muneyuki had needs that were difficult to state clearly, she would take the initiative to speak.

When to let a man perform, when to speak up for a man—Miss Minami's sense of proportion was extremely precise, and she could always praise Uesugi Muneyuki at the appropriate time, appearing neither sycophantic nor fawning.

It is a pity that only Uesugi Muneyuki could enjoy this kind of service from Miss Minami.

And the "hammers" of the Metropolitan Police Department wished they could skin him alive!

Previously, he was close with the National Goddess, senior Shirakawa Mai, and now he was being intimate with the Face of the Metropolitan Police Department, Watanabe Minami.

This Uesugi, if he did not die, it would not be enough to appease the public anger!

So when the male detectives saw Uesugi Muneyuki often appearing in pairs with their Miss Minami, they all had faces full of resentment, yet they could say nothing about his professional ability. Last time, during the Fuji TV Case, the entire Metropolitan Police Department owed him a favor.

And Uesugi Muneyuki just liked the way these "hammers" looked at him with such annoyance yet were unable to do anything about him.

After finishing lunch, while going downstairs, Uesugi Muneyuki and Detective Higurashi saw several men in suits and trench coats going downstairs. They were in a hurry, their demeanor naturally carrying a sense of arrogance and indifference.

"Public Security has indeed been dispatched." Detective Higurashi nodded: "That is Superintendent Ichijo from the Public Security Division and Captain Godai from the Security Department's SAT."

"Superintendent Ichijo? Captain Godai?"

"Yes, if they can make Superintendent Ichijo and Captain Godai move, it seems the case in Chiba Prefecture will be solved soon." Detective Higurashi put his hands behind his back: "They must have discovered something related to the Violent Group inside the warehouse."

"You mean, the dismemberment case might have been done by the Violent Group?" Uesugi Muneyuki was thoughtful.

Detective Higurashi mentioned some rumors, saying that Chiba Prefecture has many ports and wharves, which are in a relatively chaotic zone all year round, and many Violent Groups choose to conduct drug and smuggling transactions there.

But as for the specific details, Detective Higurashi did not know much either.

Yes, in the Japanese police system, the Criminal Police faction and the Public Security faction are naturally opposed; this is no longer news.

The scope of business for both sides already has a considerable degree of overlap, and the ways both sides handle crime are naturally different—the Criminal Police must speak of evidence in everything they do, but the Public Security Police do not need evidence when dealing with certain special issues, such as the Kabukicho host incident that Uesugi Muneyuki reported earlier.

The authority of the Public Security Police is inherently greater, and the Public Security Police can require the Criminal Police to share information for free, while their own information is not disclosed to the detectives.

This has led to the Public Security having no malice or special opinion toward the Criminal Police (they are just our subordinates), but the detectives are very disgusted with the Public Security (lawsuits!). The relationship between the two sides is extremely poor, belonging to the category of constant "bean-steaming" (internal strife).

This "bean-steaming" even extends to the positions of Superintendent General and Commissioner; whichever faction gets into power, that faction has the advantage.

This has already become a daily routine for the Metropolitan Police Department.

"In any case, since Public Security has intervened in the dismemberment case, it seems they have already grasped considerable evidence, and we should be closer to solving the case," Police Inspector Megure concluded, "It's just that the brothers in Chiba Prefecture are going to have to take the heat again."

"Public Security doesn't act unless they have to, but every time they do, they stir up resentment among both gods and men, leaving a mess behind in the end."

"Honestly, can't Director General Watanabe do something about these guys?"

The conflict between the Criminal Investigation Division and the Public Security Division could fill several books, haha~





(End of this chapter)