Chapter 901

"Black Dahlia." Hearing the men speak, Ishihara Mikoto and Watanabe Minami both fell into thought.

Asuka, on the other hand, didn't care about these things at all; she was playing her Switch.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses has started!

Only Ikeda Erena was interested. She looked at Uesugi Muneyuki with pure, innocent eyes untouched by the nine years of compulsory education in Spain and the Philippines: "Muneyuki, what is the Black Dahlia?"

"Didn't I just say that?" Uesugi Muneyuki said casually: "The Black Dahlia case is from 1947, a woman named Elizabeth Short was found dead by the roadside in California. Since a movie called Blue Dahlia was playing at the time, which contained murder plots, Elizabeth Short liked to decorate her hair with dahlias and also liked wearing black clothes, so she was called the Black Dahlia." "I know, I know!" Erena pouted: "My question is, why did you say this case is so hard to solve it became a cold case? Why is this case so famous? I want to know what you think."

"Tell us, Yukimatsumaru." Uesugi Kuninori and the others were also interested.

"Alright." Uesugi Muneyuki had no choice but to reveal the detailed content of this case.

The female lead of the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short, was born in 1924. She was born into an unstable family where her parents had long been separated. From childhood, Short was beautiful, rebellious in character, and dreamed of becoming an actress. Later, when she grew up, she wanted to go to Hollywood in California to become a big star.

Her father, when young, poured all his savings into the stock market, lost everything, and still owed debts. With no choice, he forged his own death certificate and fled. Meanwhile, her mother raised five daughters alone, living on odd jobs and government relief.

Short dropped out of high school. At that time, it was Hollywood's Golden Age, countless people chased dreams to California. Her father, having caught his breath, invited her to California to find him. Short was initially excited, but the father-daughter relationship was extremely poor and hard to get along with. In the end, her father kicked her out of the house. From 1943, she began sleeping on the streets. With no choice, she took a job at a military supply cooperative. Then, because she drank alcohol underage (in the U. S., one had to be 20 to drink), she was caught by police, leaving a record, photos, and fingerprints.

Elizabeth Short had dated many soldiers, one of whom she had reached the point of discussing marriage. But that soldier later died in WWII, after which she resumed her pursuit of dreams in Los Angeles, until one day her body was discovered.

Because she had a prior record, fingerprints, and photos, the police quickly figured out who she was.

However, it was of no use.

The difficulty in solving the Black Dahlia case lies in: first, the U. S. was then in the postwar chaotic period, with California developing rapidly, many infrastructures and government institutions still in the early postwar improvement stage. The Los Angeles Police Department was even more internally chaotic, with many chiefs falling due to corruption and involvement with Prohibition-era gangsters, making it hard for police to focus all attention on this case, plus the insufficient scientific and technological level at the time.

For example, even if the murderer left blood at the scene, they could only test the blood type.

For example, if a suspect could pass a lie detector test, the police would not focus all their attention on him.

Second, Elizabeth Short's interpersonal relationships were extremely complex. To put it bluntly, she was naturally rebellious, outgoing, and cheerful. In her pursuit of dreams, she met many people and worked many odd jobs, constantly changing residences. Putting it crudely, although she did have some part-time work, her main source of income was prostitution, which led to her address book having two or three hundred names and phone numbers, possibly half of whom she had relations with.

Certainly, many of them used fake names.

At the time, 90% of cases were committed by acquaintances, but Short was both open and hard to trace, both stranger-like and socially wide-ranging… how could the police investigate?

Thus, over time, this case also became a cold case.

What made this case most famous was that, while the police investigation made no breakthrough progress, someone claiming to be the murderer sent many of Short's personal belongings to the police station, several encrypted letters, claiming to be the murderer, even attaching a name-password chart that, if deciphered, would reveal who he was, repeatedly taunting the police, yet the police could do nothing about it.

"Oh? I heard a few days ago that the Black Dahlia case was solved?" Uesugi Sadanori said casually: "It seemed like the FBI said it was the same murderer as the Zodiac case?"

"No, just someone claiming that, it was someone who used AI and cryptography to solve the case, believing both cases were committed by a suspect named Marvin Margolis back then, but there was no evidence, and since the murderer left behind very complex codes, possibly deliberately writing one or two letters wrong, these codes could be forcibly interpreted as any name without problem."

Uesugi Muneyuki said with a bitter smile: "As for suspicion, let me put it this way: this is just Old Ren's nonsense—just assume he's the real murderer, then examine his personal belongings and movement trajectory, and you can almost always find a bunch of seemingly plausible evidence. For example, if after the case you kept living nearby, it's convenient for surveillance; if you left immediately, it's a guilty conscience; if you didn't change your name, you're afraid of attracting attention; if you did change your name, you're scared and want to avoid attention—things like that."

This kind of hindsight judgment is like the "Hong Xuan Huan Xue" or "Dream of the Red Chamber Guiwei Edition"—it looks reasonable, but actually it's just assuming you're right, taking the answer and forcing it to fit the process.

For example, the Hong Xuanye meme: first saying Shunzhi was born of Hong Chengchou and Xiao Zhuang, but later discovering Fu Lin was born in 1638, while Hong Chengchou was captured in 1640, which doesn't add up, so they changed it to say Xuanye was born of Hong Chengchou and the Empress Xiaokangzhang Tongjia clan, only to find these two never had a chance to meet, so they changed again, saying Kāng Xī was actually born of a 59-year-old Hong Chengchou and a 40-year-old Xiao Zhuang, Xiao Zhuang actually being Kāng Xī's birth mother, thus forcing a match.

And the Qing dynasty had an advantage: abundant historical materials. The surviving Qing historical materials are roughly three hundred times more than those of Ming Chao, so as long as you bring the answer to search, you can always find some clues and evidence—for example, Kāng Xī's strange missing stroke, or a minister who simply couldn't stand the Manchu customs before entering the pass and chose to resign in anger.

The Guiyou Edition of Dream of the Red Chamber is likewise: it has no original text, and there's no corresponding record in history. The author's cultural level is appallingly low. Although Gao E, though continuing the work, indeed has much lower ability and slightly deviates from Jia's original intent of the Jia family's total destruction, he himself is a bondservant of the Imperial Household Department, so his understanding of banner people's lifestyle and habits is thorough, and his poetry is passable. But the Guiwei Edition's character dialogues, poetry, and depictions of family life are nothing short of disastrous, and moreover, this edition has no recognized original text at all—someone just uploaded a TXT, and every year they secretly alter its content to make it seem like all foreshadowing corresponds one-to-one.

"Eh??? Amazing!" Erena's dazed eyes shone with big light.

So awesome! As expected of Muneyuki!

Hey! This woman, even if Uesugi said Tumu Fortress was in Germany, Aristotle plagiarized the Yongle Encyclopedia, she would believe it without hesitation. Beside her, the Young Lady Minami and Mikoto all showed speechless expressions.

But this is actually good……

A simple mind is more easily filled with loyalty and faith!

Fortheempireandrisingsun!!!

As for Uesugi Muneyuki, he remained solemn, still continuing to follow this case.

New Year holiday.

Ikematsu Toshiaki's initial optimism shattered before reality faster than the porcelain at Arima Onsen.

He thought finding this woman's identity wouldn't be hard.

Kobe City, New Year, a woman had been missing for several days, someone would surely report it, someone would surely come looking.

He waited one day, two days, three days.

No missing person report matching the deceased's characteristics was received.

He had people pull out all missing person records from Hyogo Prefecture over the past year, comparing them one by one.

Age matched, build didn't.

Build matched, age didn't.

Age and build both matched, but other details didn't.

The DNA identification result also came out.

The deceased's DNA was fully extracted, sent into the national DNA database, and began the long comparison.

However, the result was no match.

This woman had no criminal record, had never served in the Self-Defense Forces, and had never had her DNA collected by any institution.

In the police system's files, she was a blank record, as if grown from air, then vanished into air.

The entire Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters fell into great anxiety.

Ikematsu stood before the whiteboard in the meeting room, staring at the keywords written over and over, erased, then written again.

Female.

Thirty to forty years old.

Height about 1.58 meters.

Slim build, time of death approximately before the New Year holiday began.

No fingerprints, no teeth, no ID, clothing label cut off, shoes are common market style.

No DNA match. His marker pen drew two lines under the words "no ID," then added another. Three lines. "How the hell are we supposed to investigate this?" the Headquarters Chief roared.

The panic in Kobe City didn't slowly spread—it exploded on the spot!

Citizens weren't looking at news headlines; they were looking at the words "Kobe Dahlia."

Those few words had more impact than any headline, and the supermarket's instant noodles and bottled water were sold out on the first day.

Izakaya owners successively canceled reservations, mall foot traffic dropped to less than 20% of previous years, and no parents strolling with children could be seen in the park. By evening, even the convenience store's oden remained more than usual, hotel bookings were canceled en masse, flights were canceled, and the entire city's New Year holiday was completely ruined!

Possible economic losses amount to hundreds of billions of yen!

The phone rang nonstop.

City council lawmakers called one after another, their tone shifting from "Headquarters Chief, we are very concerned" to "Headquarters Chief, citizens are very uneasy," then from "Citizens are very uneasy" to "Exactly how capable are you of solving the case?"

Ikeda Toshiaki gripped the microphone, repeating the same phrase over and over: "We are conducting a full investigation," so many times that he began to feel the words were like chanting sutras, as he, a follower of the Other-Power Reliance sect, was indeed reciting "Other-Power Reliance."

The Kobe City Business Association also called.

The association president spoke politely, using appropriate language.

But behind every polite and proper remark lay the repeated statement: "January is the most important business period for merchants—can you police actually let us operate with peace of mind?"

The Orix Group also called.

The Orix Group is one of the world's top 500 enterprises and the most important company in Kobe City.

The voice on the other end of the phone was very calm.

"Headquarters Ikeda, the Orix Group bears significant responsibility for Kobe City's economic and social stability. We hope the police can solve the case as soon as possible and restore citizens' sense of safety."

Headquarters Ikeda gripped the microphone, forcing out a bitter smile that would never appear in front of anyone.

Solve the case quickly—he doesn't even know who the victim is, so how can he solve it?

The number of surveillance cameras covering the alley entrances around the Comprehensive Sports Park is limited, and even fewer can cover those spots.

Ikeda had personnel retrieve all surveillance footage from the five days before the New Year holiday—hundreds of terabytes of data—while dozens of technicians worked in shifts, watching from morning to night and night to morning, their eyes red and swollen, drinking coffee one cup after another.

Suspicious personnel? Yes.

But there are simply too many.

Before the New Year holiday, several friendly matches were held here! Crowds surged, people came and went!

Every person appearing in the footage could be the killer!

Japanese people also love wearing masks and hats!

Or the killer could disguise themselves as a fan and blend into the crowd.

Technicians took screenshots of every person who looked "suspicious," enlarged them, added timestamps, and entered the data into forms.

The forms grew longer and longer, until no one could finish reading them.

So long that everyone began to realize a cruel truth: they could never identify the killer among these people.

The surveillance is not clear enough, the angles are not comprehensive enough, too many people pass by, the killer might be wearing a hat, mask, and sunglasses, possibly appearing on screen for only a few seconds, or possibly not captured by any camera at all.

What should we do???

And on the first day after the New Year holiday ended, finally came a piece of good news.

"Chief! Chief! Someone filed a report!" A police officer rushed into the Special Investigation Headquarters in a frenzy.

"A man named Yamanaka Yuji filed a report, saying his sister and four children have gone missing! We checked…… possibly, possibly……" "What?"