Chapter 898: Kansai Trembles! Police Collapse!

Hyogo North…… oh no, it's Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters Chief Ikeda Toshiaki, who is under 50 this year, considered a young and promising figure in the Japanese police force. He is an organizational elite who graduated from Osaka University, and his political achievements over the years have been quite good. He never expected to become a Superintendent General in Kantou, but he thought serving as the Osaka Headquarters Chief should be no problem.

Japanese names change with each era—for example, Watanabe Eiji's father, Watanabe Kazuo, has a very old-fashioned name. Upon hearing Ikeda Toshiaki's name, one immediately knows he is from the same generation as Eiji, and his name is quite similar to the earlier Muramatsu Shunsuke. Meanwhile, most men of the new century are named things like Shōta or Yuta, while today's young boys are more often called "Aoi," "Ren," "Minato," "Sara," "Asahi," or "Ao."

The same goes for women—there was even a period when Japanese women were given names using only hiragana, no kanji. A typical example is Nagahama Aimo, who once appeared on 《Hand of God》. These two pronunciations are actually very difficult to translate and could be rendered as "Nagahama Suyu," "Nagahama Neru," or "Nagahama Neiso." Another typical example is actually "Nagasaki Sosei"—the "Sosei" in this name is actually the hiragana rendering of "eldest son," but the official name is "Sōsei." However, people dislike "Sōsei" and find "Sosei" more fitting, so they just go ahead and pronounce it "soyo."

Another example is Hatake Kakashi—this guy's name is all in hiragana with no kanji, meaning actually "scarecrow in the field." Since it's really hard to translate, they just went with a sound-based transliteration. Meanwhile, the Taiwan version's translation is actually better: "Hatare Kyō," which is more accurate and hits the meaning perfectly.

(Here I'll complain a bit—Japanese people's names are getting increasingly bizarre; you must have them annotate the pronunciation yourself to know how to read it. For example, there's a man named "*xX Hikari"—his name is "Hikari," which logically should be either the on'yomi "Kō" or the kun'yomi "Hikari," but he annotated the pronunciation of the character "光" in his own name as "Pikachu"………)

Ikeda Toshiaki received the call while staying at the old-established inn next to the "Kin no Yu" at Arima Onsen.

During the New Year holiday, he had finally managed to escape from those endless meetings, endless paperwork, and endless接待 of lawmakers, bringing his wife to stay at this inn he visits every year. The room was the innermost one on the top floor, with the window facing the ridge of the Rokkō Mountains. In winter, one could see the exposed rock face on the opposite mountain and the withered trees swaying in the cold wind.

Yes, inns of Arima Onsen's caliber are very expensive.

But if someone of his stature still has to pay out of pocket for a hotel stay, then one can only say he's rather unsuccessful.

"Chief. A major case has occurred within Kobe City. Please return immediately!" Just then, the phone rang.

"What kind of case?"

"A corpse. Female. Cut in half at the waist. Discarded on a small path beside the Comprehensive Sports Park. The Forensic Identification Division has already arrived at the scene. Preliminary assessment indicates homicide."

Ikeda's finger twitched once on the gold-colored casing of his Huawei 11 Proma smartphone.

"Cut in half? Waist-level? You mean the upper and lower body were separated?"

"Yes, the cut surface is very clean, no dismemberment—it was…… just one cut. From the waist. The upper and lower body are separated by about one meter. There's almost no blood trace at the scene. The corpse had been washed!" said the Chief of the Criminal Division urgently over the phone.

"Washed? You sure? This is Japan, not Mexico!" Ikeda Department Chief shouted angrily.

Damn it, isn't the forensic little lucky star Uesugi Muneyuki supposed to be in Kantou?

How did this kind of case end up in Kansai?

I've only been here for over half a year and already encountered such a major vicious incident—this kind of thing, oh my god!

The distance from the inn's parking lot to the Kobe City Police Headquarters isn't long, but Ikeda felt like he'd been driving forever. When he got out of the car, he noticed his phone had fallen onto the back seat.

His wife rolled down the car window and handed him the phone, saying one word: "Wait," "Damn," "Need."

Ikeda Toshiaki's reply was: "Then I should probably resign right now."

The Chief of the Criminal Division was waiting for him at the conference room door, and the hallway was already packed with people!

Upon entering the conference room, many on-duty officers were already seated, while even more officers were still on vacation. Ikeda Headquarters Chief took off his coat and draped it over the chair back, sat down, and several scene photos were spread out on the desk in front of him. He didn't look at them: "Report the situation!"

The Chief of the Criminal Division opened his notebook: "On the western side path of the Comprehensive Sports Park, a tourist family discovered it around 7 a. m..""Initial examination: the deceased is female, estimated age thirty to forty, height around 158 cm, slender build."

"The corpse was cut at the waist, with the upper and lower parts separated by approximately one meter."

"The cut surface is clean; the weapon is inferred to be a large blade or electric tool. The corpse had been washed, leaving almost no blood trace."

"The deceased's clothing: upper body is a dark gray wool sweater, lower body is black suit pants, feet are black low-cut leather shoes. Clothing is intact, no damage. No identification documents were found on the body, no phone, no wallet, no keys."

Ikeda Headquarters Chief lightly tapped his finger once on the desk surface.

"Where's Uesugi's three-piece set?"

"DNA is currently being tested. There's a lack of surveillance near the scene, and Kobe's street surveillance…… is mostly blurry and lacks sufficient camera angles. As for the physical evidence analysis at the scene…… it's still ongoing!" said the Chief of the Criminal Division, troubled.

"Time of death?"

"The corpse had been washed and then exposed to low temperatures for several days, making precise estimation time-consuming. Currently, the estimated window is three to five days ago—before the New Year holiday began."

Ikeda Headquarters Chief fell silent for a long time, vaguely sensing something ominous: "Have the Forensic Identification Division personnel arrived at the scene?"

"Yes. They're currently conducting the investigation."

The western side path of the Comprehensive Sports Park has already been cordoned off with several layers of yellow police tape.

Outside, a few officers in uniform are standing, dispersing onlookers. Inside the perimeter are forensic technicians in white work uniforms, wearing masks and rubber gloves, crouched on the ground, using tweezers to pick up something, placing it into an evidence bag, and writing a string of numbers on the bag's label.

The upper body has already been placed into a black body bag, the zipper pulled halfway up, exposing the part above the shoulders.

It's not that the forensic personnel don't want to zip it up fully, but when placing the upper body into the body bag, its posture could not be adjusted into a "lying down" shape—the lower half had already been cut off, and the remaining upper body keeps sliding to one side inside the bag.

The technician responsible for carrying tried several times, gave up, pulled the zipper up to the neck level, leaving the shoulders and above exposed. The lower body is in another body bag, in the same condition.

Legs together, toes pointing downward.

The two body bags are placed side by side on the road surface.

The Forensic Division Chief of Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters is crouched beside one of the body bags, holding a magnifying glass, staring at the edge of the cut surface for a long time. The cut surface is extremely neat, not like the rough surface produced by repeatedly sawing with an electric saw or bone saw, but rather like it was severed in one stroke by an extremely sharp blade or some high-powered electric cutting tool.

Muscle tissue, blood vessels, bones—all were cut open on the same plane. The bone cut surface is so smooth it resembles having been sanded with sandpaper.

He specifically had someone fetch a full set of cutlery from the Zwilling knife specialty store for comparison, and in the end, he disappointingly lowered his head.

It wasn't killed with Zwilling!

Then what was it killed with?

Not far from that upper body, on the road surface, there's a small dark stain, like some liquid dried up and left behind, resembling a tea stain in yellowish-brown.

Everyone at the scene is occupied with their own tasks, and this sight before them has left them with no desire to speak.

The female corpse's upper body lies in the body bag, face up, eyes closed, lips slightly parted.

"This alley has no surveillance cameras; the nearest ones are on the main roads at both ends of the path, with a straight-line distance of two hundred meters. Whether the two cameras' fields of view can cover the entrance to this alley needs to be determined by retrieving the recordings."

"Before and after the New Year holiday, how many people walked this path, how many vehicles parked nearby, and whether those people or vehicles saw or heard anything—this might be very difficult to investigate," said an officer who approached.

"Then we still have to investigate!" the Forensic Division Chief shouted angrily.

"Yes." The officers at the scene were low in spirits, unable to recall when they last encountered such a serious case.

News from the front lines reached the rear, and the whiteboard already had several keywords written: female, thirty to forty years old, waist-cut, no blood trace, clean cut surface.

And…… dahlias.

Yes, when Ikeda Headquarters Chief still wanted to suppress the information, the news had already leaked out!

When that family's father reported the police, the surroundings were already crowded with many people, many of whom had already taken photos and uploaded them to social media and the 2CH Anonymous Forum.

The photos are blurry, taken from a distance, showing only a silhouette. But that silhouette spread throughout Kobe within tens of minutes and across all of Japan within a few hours!

An American friend exclaimed: "Is this the domestically developed, self-researched black dahlia belonging to your Japanese nation?"

Thus, the keyword "Kobe Dahlia" exploded in growth on social media.

Comments shifted from "Must be fake" to "It's real," from "It's real" to "Too terrifying," from "Too terrifying" to "Ah! It's the Kobe Dahlia! Everyone, retreat quickly, grit your teeth!"

The Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters' phones were blown up in the afternoon.

TV journalists, newspaper journalists, weekly magazine journalists.

Every phone call contained the same request: "Please confirm whether the corpse found at the Comprehensive Sports Park is related to the Black Dahlia case?" The operators at Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters could only repeatedly reply, "Under investigation, cannot disclose."

But my little Japan has its own national conditions here.

YPM's First Law: any information first denied by any government is credible.

If the police do not deny it, they are admitting it.

The atmosphere in Kobe City changed within half a day.

The U. S. Consulate-General in Osaka sent an inquiry to the Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters that same afternoon.

The voice on the phone was polite, restrained, and precise in wording. They wanted to know whether this case was related to terrorism, whether any U. S. citizens were harmed, whether FBI assistance was needed, and whether this case was truly related to the "Black Dahlia" case. Ikeda Department Chief, gritting his teeth, told the U. S. consul on the phone: "No evidence linking to terrorism has been found," "The victim's identity has not yet been confirmed," "FBI assistance is not needed."

As for whether it has anything to do with the Black Dahlia, he also doesn't know.

The South Korean Consulate also called, with content similar to that of the U. S. Consulate.

The Chinese Consulate caused no inquiries, but the Osaka Consulate-General's website posted a notice: "Reminder to Chinese citizens in Japan to pay attention to safety."

After noon passed, countless civilian self-governing organizations, corporate entities, and Kobe City Government phones all rang. Ikeda Department Chief had no choice but to announce: "City-wide alert! Starting from the vicinity of the Comprehensive Sports Park, expand to a radius of two kilometers. Every hotel, every inn, every homestay. Retrieve all nearby surveillance cameras, from five days before the New Year holiday, do not miss a single frame. Where there is no surveillance, go person by person. All surrounding residents, all shop owners, all taxi drivers, all bus drivers."

"Call back everyone on leave!"

"Call Hattori Department Chief of Osaka Prefectural Police. Request support. Forensics, investigation, data analysis—whatever aspect can help, please have him send personnel!"

"Yes!!!" The entire Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters mobilized.

"Department Chief, the media is already waiting in the press room. TV, newspapers, news agencies—over a dozen. They demand we hold a press conference to explain the case situation." A female officer from the General Affairs Section said.

"Currently, there is not enough information to disclose. For now, we will state externally that we are still under investigation. We will hold real-time press briefings daily to announce our leads!"

"Department Chief, there is still one issue." The General Affairs Section Chief also arrived: "Regarding……whether to request assistance from the Special Mission Division and Uesugi Muneyuki……"

Upon hearing the name Uesugi Muneyuki, Ikeda Department Chief's pupils shrank sharply.

Uesugi Muneyuki?

The forensic little lucky star? Japan's police ultimate weapon? Kantou King?

What would having him come do? If the case is solved, it's his credit; if something goes wrong, it's our responsibility!

Moreover, we Kansai don't need Kantou people pointing fingers!

"The Special Mission Division is ultimately a department of the Metropolitan Police Department. Uesugi Chief needs to be stationed in Kantou. We Kansai don't need his assistance, nor should we disturb his holiday! We have the capability to solve our own problems!" Ikeda Toshiaki said in a deep voice.

"We Kansai people are no inferior to Kantou people. We can solve our own problems. Those Tokyo elites always think we're backwoods. If the case is solved, it's their credit; if not, it's our lack of cooperation. I've seen this many times. Since the day I entered Osaka University, I've been competing with that group of Tokyo University graduates. Competing in civil service exams, competing in promotions, even now, sitting here as Department Chief, I'm still competing." "You say to request Uesugi Muneyuki, request him, and then what? How will Tokyo newspapers report tomorrow? 'Kobe Dahlia case, Metropolitan Police Department Special Mission Division emergency reinforcement'? How will TV broadcast the day after? 'Kobe police helpless, Tokyo genius forensic scientist solves the mystery'? The face of Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters can be sacrificed, but the face of Kansai police cannot!"

He turned around to look at the Criminal Investigation Department Chief.

"I tell you: this case, we will solve it ourselves. At Osaka Prefectural Police, I will borrow personnel. At the Scientific Investigation Research Laboratory, I will mobilize all the latest equipment. All resources in the Kansai region that I, Ikeda Toshiaki, can mobilize, I will mobilize. I just don't believe it. We Kansai people cannot solve a case that Kantou people can. The reverse would be true."

The more he spoke, the more excited he became, the more feasible it seemed.

Hattori Department Chief, you truly are no inferior to Watanabe Commissioner!

"For the glory of Kansai! Everyone, please give it your all!!"

"For Kansai!!!" Upon hearing Kantou and Kansai, everyone ignited!

Yes, it's our turn for Kansai to take the stage!

It's time to display true skill!