Chapter 852: Human reasoning has its limits!

PS: The second update will be a bit late, but it will come—believe me, I swear!

"Why is it, Uesugi-san, that you always end up in this kind of trouble?"

Uesugi Muneshige told Maeda Toshihide and Date Chousou the full story of what happened.

The two hot-blooded youths reacted differently.

"Good!!! So spirited!!!" Maeda Toshihide felt his passion igniting, and images already formed in his mind.

Do you want to be a coward for life, or do you want to be a true hero—even if only for five minutes?

If the Japanese police are really this dark, then let me become the Kamimisa of the new world!

Revere the Emperor, expel the treacherous! Heavenly punishment upon national traitors!

The Miluo River surges with waves! The clouds and rains of Mount Wu fly chaotically! In this turbid age, I stand alone! Righteous fury fills my chest, blood surges like a tide!

The noble clans rely on arrogance! Patriotism lacks loyalty! The Kawashima Restoration blooms under the spring sky! Young men unite for justice!

In my chest, I harbor the strength of a million soldiers! Scattered blossoms, ten thousand cherry trees in bloom!

Thinking of this, Maeda Toshihide already had the image before his eyes.

Come, let us count your sins!

Approximately 1,145,141 years later, a total of 1,919,810 people came to his grave to offer flowers: People often say, a life should be lived like this————We naval youths must live it thus, roaring and magnificent, I swear! Even if I cannot become Yoshitsune Ōtani, I must become Hideaki Kobayakawa, I swear!

Meanwhile, Date Chousou had his hands clasped over his head, weeping bitterly.

"Uesugi Chief."

"Hmm?" Uesugi Muneshige looked at Date, his face full of gentleness: "Is there something you'd like to say? Date-san?"

"Can I exchange my brain for one that hasn't heard of this?" Date Chousou wept bitterly: "Uesugi-san, I now have a public position, a girlfriend, a bright future, and the duty to inherit the Uwajima Date Count family (though the old kazoku peerage has been abolished)—can I not get involved?"

"No." Uesugi Muneshige said calmly: "Date, from the moment you finished listening, you are no longer innocent."

He wrapped his arms around Date Chousou's neck and whispered in his ear: "Think about it, Date—the right-wing extremists who planned that terrorist attack were former Self-Defense Forces, and the bizarrely deceased Yae Ken in this incident was also former Self-Defense Forces, and you, Date Chousou, your identity before becoming a police officer was also————"

"Former Self-Defense Forces!" Maeda Toshihide exclaimed excitedly: "We have a traitor among us! That person is Date Chousou!"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! If you don't speak, no one will think you're mute!" Date Chousou shouted, furious and defeated:

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"It's not like I wanted to become a Self-Defense Officer myself—it was just bad luck————"

"So, Date, think carefully: you're a former Self-Defense Officer. If this blows up, you'll definitely face investigation, possibly even suspension. Naturally, someone in your situation usually won't be fired, but you might just be reassigned." Uesugi Muneshige said seriously: "For example, forest police in Aomori?"

"A Date!" Date wailed.

"Or a snowbound patrol officer in Hakodate, Hokkaido, fixing frozen-broken bicycles every day?"

"Ya ga nai chō!" Date already had his hands over his head.

"The water police in Tokushima aren't bad either—you can even practice tying knots in your spare time." Maeda Toshihide chimed in: "But unfortunately, doing this would abolish the Special Investigations Division, prevent the Patrol Division Chief's promotion, and you'd lose your Akane-chan too."

"Bo gu wa a da!!!" Date Chousou finally submitted.

"So this isn't coercion—it's called————Sin Expedition!" Uesugi Muneshige firmly placed his hand on Date's shoulder: "Brave youth, go create miracles! Aren't you self-defense officers the ones who love to boast: 'If there's war, we answer the call'?"

"About that————Uesugi Chief, actually, if there really were war, we former Self-Defense Officers still within service age who don't return would be breaking the law—this is clearly written in our contracts————" Date Chousou said weakly.

"Hahahahahaha ahahahahahahahaha~"

"You're still laughing! You have no idea how desperate I am! How can I cultivate?! When will I ever be able to take off this 'former Self-Defense Officer' hat?!" Date Chousou exploded in rage and despair.

"Soon—if you do this well, this matter will let you take off that hat." Uesugi Muneshige nodded: "Good. Since Date has agreed to join, we'll split up and act."

"Exactly what should we do? Uesugi Kaka, please give the order!" Maeda Toshihide said.

"Like this, like that————" Uesugi Muneshige whispered his instructions.

Maeda Toshihide and Date Chousou both nodded, showing they understood.

After the three of them discussed and decided on it, Maeda Toshihide suddenly couldn't help but complain: "Uesugi-san, I originally thought joining the Special Investigations Unit would mean all kinds of thrilling, hardcore detective stories, but in reality, it feels like there's too much social-themed content. Still, after reading a lot of Kashiwagi Jin's hardcore mysteries, I've come to appreciate social-themed ones too—though I still really want to read pure hardcore."

"It's normal," Uesugi Muneshige laughed. "Human nature is drawn to the bizarre, and the debate between hardcore and social-themed mysteries has been going on for decades, hasn't it?"

It is well known that the Japanese love mystery novels, and the earliest ones were all "authentic mysteries"—that is, focusing on crime methods, techniques, and motives. This is what we call "early authentic mysteries," where readers and protagonists gain access to the same information and clues, driving curiosity and the thirst for knowledge, culminating in a shared moment of sudden understanding.

However, it is also well known that human reasoning has limits. The methods used in authentic mysteries are hardly more than a few: alibis, locked-room murders, special killing methods, special character relationships.

For example, a typical trope: if a novel mentions a character whose life or death is uncertain, they are definitely not dead—and will later appear as the hidden killer or a key witness.

So, as time passed and everyone figured out the patterns, they started getting bored. That's when "social-themed mysteries" began to emerge, with authors shifting focus to the social issues behind the cases—such as workplace bullying, school bullying, village ostracism, lonely elderly people, corporate conglomerates colluding with local authorities, and so on. Solving the case became mainly a vehicle for storytelling and analyzing social problems.

But when social-themed mysteries became too common, they started to annoy readers. At first, readers found them interesting, but later they grew tired of tropes like "these are just elaborate machines," "everything is capitalism's alienation," or "all blame falls on beautiful groups"—these repetitive writing patterns and the heavy emphasis on social narratives made readers crave pure hardcore mysteries again, leading to a resurgence of the genre.

During this period, works like *Detective Conan* and *Kindaichi Case Files* exemplified this trend. Compared to earlier pure hardcore mysteries, *Conan* and *Kindaichi* already showed clear signs of blending social-themed elements into hardcore detective fiction.

However, as time went on, this kind of hardcore mystery began to annoy readers again, prompting a return of social-themed mysteries to the forefront. These new works started incorporating elements like espionage, high-level internal power struggles, and even historical legacies into social-themed detective stories.

After a while, readers grew tired again. The wheel of mystery fiction history turned to its third lap, and stories began to appear with absolutely no social background or even no social relationships at all—such as the XX Mansion XX Manor incident. In these mysteries, the world is entirely confined to a tiny, isolated space; the outside world is completely nonexistent, like an alien dimension. Thus, they return to the classic model of the isolated mountain villa in a blizzard.

Yet during this process, the conflict between hardcore and social-themed mystery fans intensified, with each side wishing the other would disappear and belittling the other as completely worthless.

This is also why Keigo Higashino has remained consistently popular—his works contain both hardcore elements and social themes, striking a balance that appeals to a broad audience. However, in recent years, his reputation has slightly declined: hardcore fans feel his stories aren't hardcore enough, social-themed fans think they lack sufficient social depth, and pure mystery enthusiasts believe they aren't sufficiently focused on the puzzle-solving aspect of detective fiction.

Whether Keigo Higashino's later works still qualify as mystery novels is actually debatable.

Thus, this person forever keeps eating boomerangs, and their reputation forever spirals—which is quite amusing.

But Uesugi Muneshige walked his own path.

Reasoning beyond human limits.

The body of Yae Ken Tetsuya was not left at the Metropolitan Police Department.

Within a few hours after the shooting incident, his body was removed from the conference room.

It was not sent to the Police Agency's Identification Division, nor to the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Examinership, but was instead taken over by Public Security police and transported to a location not recorded in public records.

Uesugi Muneshige spent half a day tracking down that location—through the tracking of Hirano Mariko and the perception of Arimura Hana.

Hana Arimura sensed that in that direction, there was a "suddenly extinguished flame, carrying great regret and anger."

————

She followed the scent trail and finally locked onto an abandoned police training facility at the border between Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo.

The place had been out of use for many years, surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, with plainclothes public security police guarding the entrance.

According to opportunity Date Nagamune stood outside that iron gate, wearing his usual dark blue cotton shirt, with a black thin windbreaker over it.

His stance was the standard posture of someone with Self-Defense Forces background—spine straight, chin slightly drawn in, weight subtly forward.

Maeda Toshihide stood beside him, wearing a light gray hooded sweatshirt with the zipper pulled all the way to the top, hat not worn, hair somewhat messy from the wind, his square face bearing an expression of "I actually don't know why I'm here, but since Lord Date told me to come, I came."

Then these two pretended to be jogging.

The guard personnel beside the iron gate saw them.

Two young men in plain clothes leaned against the outer wall of the guard booth, each holding a can of coffee, their eyes never leaving Date Nagamune from the start.

Behind the window of the guard booth sat another person, speaking into a radio.

Date Nagamune's former Self-Defense Forces status is marked in the public security police database.

Former Self-Defense Officer, Yellow Mark, requires attention.

Maeda Toshihide, Blue Mark, can be relaxed.

Uesugi Muneyuki, Purple Mark, Born in Purple Chamber.

When Uesugi Muneyuki climbed over the side wall, no one noticed him.

His movement was not fast, but very light, like a cat stepping on fallen leaves, the hem of his windbreaker brushing against dust on the wall top as he climbed over, he landed and casually patted himself, then walked toward the building interior.

The corridor was long, the fluorescent lights only half-lit, with patches of shadow every few meters. His leather shoes stepped on the dust-covered floor, leaving a clear trail of footprints.

Mai Xuejie's invisibility ability continued to exert force.

Yaegaki Tetsuya was placed in a room deep inside the building.

No refrigeration cabinet, no temperature control equipment, just laid on a stainless steel autopsy table, covered with a white cloth.

The public security police had no intention of long-term preservation of this corpse; they only needed to wait for the "accidental discharge" conclusion to be formally written into the report, then they could arrange cremation.

Before that, they needed to place the corpse in a location where no one could touch it. They did not believe anyone could breach the outer perimeter.

Even if someone broke through, the public security police believed that with a wall in between, no forensic pathologist could draw any conclusion without touching the corpse.

Uesugi Muneyuki does not need to touch the corpse.

He only needs to be close enough.

Human reasoning ability has limits!

So, I am no longer human!!!!

Through a wall, Yaegaki Tetsuya lay on the autopsy table, the white cloth covering from his chest to his ankles, revealing a grayish-white face devoid of any blood color, his eyes closed, lips slightly parted, as if saying an unfinished word.

Hironaka Mariko stood beside the autopsy table, looking down at that face.

I had seen that face in the surveillance footage—Yaegaki Tetsuya smiled at the receptionist during front desk registration, that smile held politeness, tension, and a kind of "this is my last chance" resolve.

Now that face had no smile, no tension, no resolve, nothing at all, only a thin layer of flesh and bone slowly disintegrating.

Uesugi Muneyuki placed his hand on the wall, the Qinghui Stone's light flared up.

He closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness into that gray, soundless, lightless space only he could enter.

"Yaegaki Tetsuya, open your eyes, I am Uesugi, Uesugi Muneyuki!"

Light split a seam in the depths of consciousness.

In the chaotic, multicolored realm, a human shape emerged from total darkness, outline blurred, edges like ink soaked in water slowly diffusing.

Yaegaki Tetsuya stood in that gray void, wearing the dark jacket he had when he broke into the conference room, hair somewhat messy, the goatee on his chin appearing denser than actual in the shadow, his face showing no gunshot wound, no bloodstain, no trace left by death. He looked like the person who had been alive just hours ago, except all color had been drained, leaving only varying shades of gray.

"You are————Uesugi Muneyuki? Wait, am I not already dead?" Yaegaki said fearfully, trying to embrace himself with his hands, but felt nothing: "What, what exactly is going on?"

"Tell me all the truth, Yaegaki Tetsuya, I feel sorry for your death, I know you have words left unsaid, now tell me everything!"

"Can you hear me speaking?"

Uesugi Muneyuki's consciousness in that gray looked at him. "Yes."

Yaegaki Tetsuya's lips trembled, a long-suppressed thing finally finding an outlet, that uncontrollable surge rising from the deepest part of the body.

His eye sockets held no tears, the dead soul could no longer shed tears, but his entire face performed the act of "crying"—brow furrowed, eye sockets reddened, lips pressed into a line then released, repeating several times before squeezing out the first words.

"So that's it. You solved the case this way. I've always wondered how you could always be one step ahead of everyone. You didn't deduce it, you just asked directly!"

"Is this humanity? Are there no humans left? Is the darkness of Japanese police only penetrable through such inhuman existence? Is this Japanese police? Must final justice rely on such————transcending reason————does this world truly have————"

"Because human reasoning ability has limits!" Uesugi Muneyuki neither denied nor admitted: "So, I choose————transcendence!"

"Speak." He stood there, waiting.

Yaegaki Tetsuya's second sentence came much faster than the first, and much louder. Not volume, but impact force in the consciousness space.

"Isomura is the one I killed!"

"Say it in detail." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded: "We have plenty of time.

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"Let's start from that night————"

"That night, we were under the leadership of the then Investigation Division 1 Chief Watanabe Director, surrounding the jetty————"