Chapter 795: Hand of God

After finishing receiving Mikoto's family, Uesugi Muneyuki's work continued.

Thanks to this US-Japan friction, the Special Mission Division finally officially entered operation.

And with Uesugi Muneyuki holding the fort, the Special Mission Division's effect was explosive.

First, a female corpse buried for half a year was discovered in an abandoned factory in Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture; Uesugi Muneyuki restored the deceased's identity through dental records and pelvic morphology, uncovering a serial murder case using marriage fraud as a method.

Immediately after, a dismemberment and body dumping case broke out in Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture; the body was dismembered into nine pieces and scattered across the Boso Peninsula, and he precisely locked down the model of the power tool used by the culprit through exact analysis of bone cut mark angles, successfully arresting the culprit.

By late June, an elderly couple was found dead for many days in an apartment in Adachi Ward, Tokyo; nearby residents thought it was just an ordinary lonely death, but Uesugi Muneyuki judged from trace fibers extracted from the palms of the corpses and abnormal pupil constriction symptoms that this was carbon monoxide poisoning disguised as natural death, and following the vine caught the son who killed his own parents to fraudulently claim insurance money.

Three murder cases solved in one month; the media lifted him to the heavens — titles like "Hikawa's Holmes" and "Japanese Police's Ultimate Weapon" flew everywhere; even Weekly Bunshun had to admit "This man really has the goods, he doesn't just eat off his face."

Whenever there was a case, someone would spam.

"Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade Uesugi Snow Pine, Junior Assistant of the Board of Censors Fujiwara Muneyuki Ason, deploying — Kagaya!!!"

"Our Dragon of Echigo will chastise all of Kanto! From Mount Asama straight to the east of Boso Peninsula, everywhere on the land will resound with the song: Tokyo University — Special Mission Division, our Uesugi Giant Dragon!"

But these were all just appetizers.

The real main course was July.

Fuji set the premiere date of the Hand of God TV drama version for the first Monday of July, the Getsuku slot, 9 PM.

Starting from late June, the giant billboard outside the Fuji Field Building was replaced with a poster of Bai Chuan Mai and Uesugi Muneyuki standing back to back — Bai Chuan Mai holding a police badge in her hand, Uesugi Muneyuki wearing a white coat, one looking left, one looking right, with "Hand of God" written in large gold-stamped characters in the middle.

Subway stations, train straps, screens behind convenience store counters — everywhere were trailers for this drama. Even fans rented the screen outside Shibuya 109 building, looping the shot of Bai Chuan Mai looking back in the trailer, captioned "I'm back!" On the premiere night, all of Japan seemed to go quiet.

Twitter data showed that between 8:55 PM and 9:00 PM, the tweet volume for the term "Hand of God" skyrocketed from 300 per minute directly to 12,000 per minute. In izakayas people switched channels to Fuji, in family restaurants people watched livestreams on phones, even some companies simply let employees off early — anyway, no one was working if they stayed in the office.

The first episode's content opened with extremely explosive plot involving Public Security, the Cabinet, spies, and old affairs; the Superintendent General, Cabinet Ministers, Russian spies, and Public Security Police all appeared in succession; after the writer's polishing, the pacing was faster than real cases, emotional conflicts more intense, scale larger — especially at the end when the Chief Cabinet Secretary roared at Bai Chuan Mai's superior, the Special Mission Division Supervisor played by Tsumabuki Satoshi: "The US-Japan Alliance is the core value that allows our country to enter the international division of labor and open global markets! What you're doing — do you want to destroy this country?!"

While shocking, it also evoked associations with recent cases, and moreover this episode was supposedly filmed before the US-Japan corpse theft incident — very dark humor.

Someone online called it "Great Prophet Medivh Kameyama."

But everyone knew the audience wasn't just watching for the cases. They were watching National Goddess Bai Chuan Mai.

Even more, they were watching Uesugi Muneyuki — watching that man who only appeared for ten minutes per episode, but every second made hearts race. The first episode's ratings came out the next morning.

35.7%.

All of Fuji exploded.

Production Bureau people hugged and cried, Promotion Department people knelt on the ground shouting banzai, even the usually most reserved President Kameyama personally ran to the Production Department and said "Yada☆ze!" — this was probably the first time in Fuji's history.

Bureau Chief Abiru popped a champagne bottle on the spot, spraying it all over the table, shouting: "Thirty-five years! Thirty-five years! Highest ratings in Getsuku history! We did it!"

Someone beside her quietly reminded: "Abiru-san, the highest Getsuku ratings are 37.8% for 'Under the Same Roof'..." President Kameyama glared at that person: "That was nearly thirty years ago! You're comparing with standards from thirty years ago?! There was no internet back then! How many choices did viewers have back then?!"

That person shrank their neck, not daring to speak further.

Other TV stations reacted even faster.

TBS held an emergency meeting overnight, temporarily pulled the originally scheduled Getsuku drama and replaced it with the documentary "Secrets of Mount Fuji." TV Asahi discussed for a while, then directly aired "Wild Kingdom" in that slot — anyway no one would watch, might as well save some budget. Nippon Television was stubborn, gritting their teeth and airing a new drama episode, but ratings were only single digits — miserable, so the station immediately decided to switch that slot to the overseas drama "Endless Love Compilation."

TV Tokyo properly aired their originally scheduled program "Decisive Battle at Tennouzan, Xiao Ying and Xiao Yu's Great Adventure," as if outside matters had nothing to do with them.

The second week's ratings dropped somewhat but remained stable at 33.6%.

The second episode's plot was even more explosive — about Uesugi Muneyuki's early Shinagawa train dismembered corpse case, exposing Japanese society's homeless problem and employees' habitual inaction and bureaucratic habits; the protagonist played by Mai Xuejie had to directly face JR East's challenge — their calls reached the Superintendent General's desk — but in the end Bai Chuan Mai and Tsumabuki Satoshi withstood the pressure and pushed through, and with Uesugi Muneyuki's forensic ability successfully turned the tables, forcing JR East to back down.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief — this wasn't a flash-in-the-pan hit, this was a truly capable National Drama.

What truly drove all of Japan crazy was the ratings curve graph.

Every episode, the ratings peak wasn't at the beginning, wasn't at the end, but at a fixed time slot in the latter middle — the time when Uesugi Muneyuki made his cameo appearance.

Whenever Shiraishi Mai (i. e., the protagonist played by Bai Chuan Mai) came seeking him, Uesugi Muneyuki putting on gloves and picking up a scalpel in the lab, or standing behind Bai Chuan Mai and lightly saying "This isn't suicide, it's homicide" — ratings would rocket upward like a rocket. An audience member posted a photo of their TV on Twitter, the screen showing Uesugi Muneyuki's profile, captioned: "My husband asked why I'm kneeling to watch TV, I said this isn't watching TV, this is watching a reality documentary — Kagaya!"

The tacit understanding between him and Bai Chuan Mai made CP fans go wild.

There was a scene: the female detective played by Bai Chuan Mai was at a loss at the crime scene; Uesugi Muneyuki walked over, said nothing, just handed a cup of hot coffee to her.

Their fingers lightly touched on the cup wall, then fingertips slightly hooked, rubbed past each other, then each moved away — just this one shot, the internet exploded for three days.

Some analyzed the finger contact angle frame by frame, some verified whether they also handed coffee like this in real life, some directly clipped this segment into a GIF with text like "What he handed wasn't coffee, it was love" — retweets easily broke 100,000.

The third episode even had a shot: Mai, in an urgent situation with someone nearby making it inconvenient to speak, called Uesugi Muneyuki. "Hello?" "Hm?" "Hi!" "Oh!"

Just these four words, the two completed communication; soon Uesugi Muneyuki personally rushed over in the nick of time, bringing Tokyo University's professional team.

By the time the third episode finished airing, someone launched an online petition.

"Petition for Uesugi Muneyuki to Divorce His Current Wife."

The petition was written with literary flair: "Mr. Uesugi Muneyuki and Miss Bai Chuan Mai are a match made in heaven; whether in appearance, temperament, talent, or soul compatibility, they are the most perfect partners of the Hikawa year. While current wife Uesugi Minami is also an excellent police officer, her compatibility with Mr. Uesugi Muneyuki is far inferior to Miss Bai Chuan Mai. For Mr. Uesugi Muneyuki's happiness, and for the Japanese people's aesthetic expectations, we earnestly request the two divorce soon and fulfill this beautiful tale."

Signatures broke 30,000 in three days.

When Uesugi Minami saw this news, she was in the Special Mission Division office processing documents.

She shoved her phone screen in Ikeda Erena's face, voice trembling with anger: "Look! Look! Are these people sick?! Muneyuki and I are doing fine, what right do they have to tell me to divorce?!"

Eirina took the phone, glanced, suppressed a laugh, and carefully said: "Section Chief, they say your compatibility with Uesugi-sensei is far inferior to Bai Chuan-san..."

"Compatibility?! What do they know about compatibility?!" Uesugi Minami snatched back the phone, fingers flying across the screen, "How many years have I been with Muneyuki? What is Bai Chuan Mai? She's just... she's just..."

She couldn't continue cursing, because a tweet popped up on the phone screen just then.

Written by a Sakura Girl, every line filled with that uniquely Japanese social media tone — both cutesy and crazy:

"Miss Uesugi Minami, sorry, but the Mr. Uesugi Muneyuki standing next to Bai Chuan Mai is truly glowing. You may be his wife, but I think his soulmate is Mai-san. Sorry (lol)"

This day, the entire Special Mission Division heard the Section Chief's roar.

Minami Ojou-sama slammed her phone on the table, chest heaving violently; Eirina peeked at her expression from the side, and suddenly noticed — the Section Chief's mouth corners seemed to have curled up slightly.

"Section Chief?"

"What?"

"You... are you actually... a little pleased?"

Uesugi Minami froze, then her face flushed red.

She opened her mouth to retort, but the retort stuck in her throat and wouldn't come out. Because she really was a little pleased.

So many women covet her man, so many fans hope her marriage falls apart — doesn't that just prove how good the man she married is? Doesn't that just prove what an incredible thing it was that she snatched this man from Bai Chuan Mai's hands back then?

"What's there to be smug about!" She still refused to admit it verbally, picking up her phone again and continuing to scroll down: "I'm just angry! Angry, tooth sound! These people are too much, tooth sound!"

After saying that, Minami continued scrolling through her phone happily.

Another trending topic was a long tweet, supposedly from some rich second-generation with serious background; he had permanent residency green cards for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand at age 5, celebrated his 7th birthday at the Dubai sail hotel, and his most recent tweet was at Salt Bae's restaurant pretending to eat a gold-leaf tomahawk steak.

"Abs (Fuji) are totally messing with me — the promo image clearly shows him as deputy center position, but Uesugi Muneyuki only appears for ten minutes per episode; doesn't that count as fraud? For these ten minutes I have to watch an hour of drama, my love is real. But if he could appear more, I'd be even happier. Fuji, please, increase his screen time! If it takes money, I'll pay!"

Someone replied below: "How much will you pay? I'll pay double."

Another said: "I'll pay ten times, let him fall in love with Bai Chuan Mai every episode, no more solving cases."

Someone even crazier: "I'll pay one million, let them get married in the drama, and in reality too."

Online heat burned into reality. Convenience store TV weeklies with Uesugi Muneyuki and Bai Chuan Mai on the cover sold out the same day; people held support signs on Shibuya streets reading "Uesugi Muneyuki & Bai Chuan Mai, Hikawa Strongest CP." Even a fan wrapped an itasha covered in their drama stills, driving slowly through Akihabara's main streets, photographed by passersby and posted online, retweets easily breaking fifty thousand. The Metropolitan Police Department Public Relations Division has been swamped these days, promoting along with it.

"Police officer" jumped to first place in the high school employment survey willingness ratio.

A few days later, even Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda Kimiaki was asked this question at a routine press conference.

A Western journalist asked: "Secretary Onoda, how do you view the online petition demanding Mr. Uesugi Muneyuki divorce?"

Onoda Kimiaki answered with a blank expression: "This is a private matter; the Cabinet declines to comment. But Mr. Uesugi Muneyuki, as the Metropolitan Police Department's Chief Medical Examiner, has made enormous contributions to the nation's public security; that point is beyond doubt."

That's the benefit of having official backing — any attack on his private life ultimately gets blocked by the wall of "he has contributed to the country." But after episode three aired, another matter sparked nationwide discussion.

That was the sponsors.

As everyone knows, Japanese TV programs, after the opening sequence, have a sponsor narration segment.

Hand of God's list was long enough to make one's hair stand on end.

"This program is brought to you by the following sponsors"

Tei Reiji's voice was perfectly enunciated, reading one name after another.

"Toyota Motor, Sony Corporation, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Nippon Life Insurance, Tokyo Marine Holdings, Meiji Holdings, Asahi Breweries, Tokyo Electric Power, SoftBank Group, NTT Docomo, Fujitsu, Hitachi Ltd., Matsushita Electric, Omron, Daikin Industries, Sumitomo Corporation, Marubeni, Itochu Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Nippon Yusen, Mitsui O. S. K. Lines, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Hino Motors, Mazda, Rakuten, Uniqlo, ABC-MART, 7-11, FamilyMart, DMM. com, Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Nidec, Mitsubishi Chemical, Sumitomo Chemical, Mitsui Chemicals, Kao, Suntory……" and so on and so forth.

Reading these sponsors took a full minute and a half.

But halfway through, viewers had already started cursing.

"What the hell?! There's more?!"

"How long is this going to go on?!"

"Padding runtime isn't done like this, right?!"

"I fucking thought the OP ended, but it's ads! A whole minute and a half of ads! It's only an hour-long drama, you wasted nearly two minutes making me watch ads?!"

"It's not ads, it's the sponsor list! Longer than ads!"

"Fuji, have you gone broke crazy?!"

But curse as they might, no one switched channels.

Because after the list finished, Bai Chuan Mai's stunning face would appear on screen, and Uesugi Muneyuki would appear in a white coat at uncertain time segments.

"Oh yo yo yo, exaggerated wow." President Kameyama watched countless complaints and attacks against the TV on his president's 【screen】, but episode four's ratings had already broken 36%, reaching 36.9%, grinning in loud laughter: "Even this can get flamed, wow?"

I just love how you hate watching me but can't stop, and still have to come watch our drama!

Wind from tiger, clouds from dragon, dragon tiger heroes laugh at the azure sky

Being able to make my Fuji grab this treasure Uesugi — this must be the great hand of heaven exerting its force!

This great one's noble visage cannot be gazed upon directly, this venerable one's voice cannot be listened to directly — President Kameyama suggests you can use this time to go to the toilet and fix a water pipe first. After all, holding your pee while watching drama is bad for your health, oh.

Oh yo yo yo~