Chapter 927

In the early hours past four, the sky was still dark. The sea surface of Kobe Port lay in the night, showing a deep, ink-like black. In the high-floor suite of the Okura Hotel, the Ferris wheel outside the floor-to-ceiling window had been turned off, leaving only the tower's outline faintly visible against the night sky.

Three people sat on the sofa, with a pot of sencha that had been refilled many times spread before them.

Uesugi Muneyuki, Minami, and Kashiwagi Jin sat together.

The three maintained their respective postures; the residual warmth from the battle they had just experienced had not yet fully dissipated, but the conversation had already begun. "Damn it, I should have gone myself!" Lao Ren, upon hearing Uesugi Muneyuki and Ahiru's "battle" (Uesugi Muneyuki said it was him and Okada and others defeating Ahiru through the Arhat wheel tactic), felt extremely resentful: "Illegal search! Illegal search! Uesugi, you bastard! KUS0, all you know is illegal search! Would adding me get me killed? Aren't we the Absolute Dual Pride of the Metropolitan Police Department?"

"Holy shit, don't!" Minami Ojou-sama rarely spat out a profanity: "Kashiwagi Keichō, do you know how much pressure our division faces to accuse an Olympic champion? So all our actions must be legal and compliant! At this moment, any problem could bankrupt our investigation and turn it into illegal activity!"

"There's some truth to that." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded.

Minami leaned against the corner of the sofa, a thin blanket draped over her knees, her hair somewhat disheveled, clearly just woken up, she said lazily: "Muneyuki, are you sure what you did is correct? If the evidence hasn't reached an indisputable level, if the MIT results show even a hint of hesitation, we face not just backlash from Hyogo Prefectural Police, but from the entire sports world. An Olympic champion, two-time gold medalist, accused of murder, dismemberment, and atrocities—if he is ultimately proven innocent, or if the evidence chain has flaws, the entire Special Mission Division will become the target of public criticism." Uesugi Muneyuki leaned back on the sofa, fingers interlaced: "So I'm waiting for MIT's results. Without that result, I won't hold a press conference. But if the result comes out, even if it only proves he has a 50% chance of being involved in this case, I will hold one."

Kashiwagi Jin sat on the single sofa, legs crossed, holding no teacup, he was playing with a lighter, opening and closing the lid, producing a crisp sound in the quiet room: "To be honest, even if he's an Olympic champion, it's not really a big deal. Judo, aside from a few countries in East Asia and Europe, hardly anyone truly cares. Look at how many people are still bidding to host the Olympics now—bidding cities are decreasing, withdrawals increasing. Nobody's stupid; everyone knows hosting the Olympics is a huge pit."

Uesugi Muneyuki, upon hearing this, revealed a faint smile: "This thing is actually only half right."

"Half?" Minami Ojou-sama became interested; though she wasn't particularly interested in the Olympics, hearing her man talk about it still piqued her curiosity. Uesugi Muneyuki nodded.

Everyone seemed unwilling to host the Olympics—from a certain angle, this is a kind of custom-made gratifying novel, saying it's as if from the Seoul Olympics to the London Olympics, especially after a certain Peking Olympics, it seemed as if a certain country hosted too well, standards too high, so afterward nobody wanted to host. This is actually only half right; although the Peking Olympics was indeed one of the best-hosted, the real reason isn't this. Uesugi Muneyuki lifted his hand from the teacup, leaned forward slightly, fingers interlaced and placed on his knees: "It's not that nobody wants to host, but that the rules are too unreasonable, the IOC's cut is too high—all commercial sponsorships directly take 30%, venues must be newly built, cannot rent existing facilities, must be new construction. Pre-event security, transportation, hotels—all must follow their standards, easily starting at tens of billions. Hosting one Olympics, an ordinary country would owe debt for twenty to thirty years. Under these circumstances, who would volunteer to take it on?"

"Not every country can invest without limit like the country across the sea, nor like Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo's era, when they wanted to prove Korea's economic takeoff and Han River miracle, sparing no expense to host an Olympics to let the world know."

In reality, everyone is still quite willing to host the Olympics—besides, let's popularize a warm fact: a certain country's major regions have wanted to host the Olympics for many, many years already.

"The cut is too high. Thirty points—take 30% for doing nothing. Venues must be newly built, pre-event must renovate surrounding infrastructure per their demands, post-event these venues have extremely low utilization, most becoming white elephant projects. If this is the case, I also suggest the IOC sit down and talk honestly." Uesugi Muneyuki complained: "Post-event maintenance costs borne by the host city, tax reductions still need renegotiation, security costs have no upper limit requiring the host to pay, bidding fees rise yearly, even the licensing fees for mascot IPs must be shared. Each clause is a real, hard constraint." "As for future development and nameplate effects, expanding the customer base—this can certainly choose short-term loss for long-term gain during global economic boom, like the massive infrastructure from the Peking Olympics, which is long-term beneficial because at the time it was a period of great development; now losing money, future use can still be found, offsetting part of the loss—but now the global economy is declining, long-term vision has no meaning, nobody's having babies, customers are dwindling, who cares about the future?"

"I see, so the actual biggest problem is……loss, losing too much?"

"Yes, the fundamental reason is that the IOC is simply too greedy." Uesugi Muneyuki nodded with a bitter smile: "Do nothing, yet take 30-40% of all Olympic revenue, ultimately leaving this country and this city indebted to the IOC as if owing a favor—naturally nobody wants to touch it." "Actually, aside from that, the new Olympic bid IOC has slightly lowered some conditions, such as reducing the cut, such as allowing use of old venues, and immediately over a dozen cities came to compete." Lao Ren knew something: "Just see if the IOC is willing to bleed a bit. That said, this sports-world corruption, from top to bottom, is rotten through and through. A judo Olympic champion, relying on his gold medal, can secretly rule over female students after retirement; the league found out, merely expelled his membership, didn't even report to police. If he hadn't killed someone, he could still have gone far down that path."

"So if one hammer blow doesn't kill him, we'll face the sports world's frenzied backlash!" Minami wrapped the thin blanket tighter, turned her head to look out the window—the sea was shifting from black to deep blue, a thin gray-white line appearing on the horizon: "When MIT's results come out at noon, at the afternoon press conference, have you figured out what to say?"

Uesugi Muneyuki placed the teacup back on the table; the cup base touched the tray, making a soft sound: "First, organize the evidence chain completely. After confirming no error, at the meeting directly announce the DNA match results, say Ahiru Ken's DNA highly matches the sample taken from the scene, and simultaneously report that we've found the bodies of Yamada Reika's four children. No need to embellish the killer's brutality—just lay out the facts."

Just past noon, Uesugi Muneyuki's phone rang.

The screen showed Professor Ken Tanaka's name; he answered and turned on speakerphone.

Professor Ken Tanaka's voice came from the earpiece, speaking faster than usual, carrying the particular tone of a researcher who has just obtained key data—struggling to stay calm but unable to hide excitement.

"Ahiru came into contact with those corpse fragments' packaging before arrest. Inside the walls of that packaging, there were microscopic skin flakes and sweat residue. DNA comparison shows his DNA sample highly matches!"

"Good!" Uesugi Muneyuki exclaimed excitedly: "Thank you, Ken. You've helped a lot!"

"You're welcome! If you have such cases again, remember to call me. My students heard I'm doing forensics for the Japanese Metropolitan Police, all want to switch majors." Professor Ken also felt proud: "What weird, perverted cases do we have in the US?! Everyone's so excited! Especially since it's for Uesugi boy, your Hikawa-year Sherlock Holmes! Everyone wants to join in! hentaihentai! I just love~oh oh oh oh oh oh~I just love 'justdoit!'"

"'Flowers,' 'Trees,' 'Sky,' 'Breeze,' 'Clouds,' 'Sun,' 'Rainbow,' 'Ocean,' 'Beach,' 'Forest,' 'Pebbles,' 'Gravel,' 'Earth'" Professor Ken was again showing off those few Japanese phrases he knows.

"Uh……" Uesugi Muneyuki was speechless.

Actually, Japan doesn't have that many perverted cases……right?

It's just that I encounter them more easily……right?

2:00 PM.

In the conference hall of Kobe Port Okura Hotel, reporters had already filled all the seats.

Cameras lined up in a row, flashlights flickered on and off beneath the hall's dome.

Uesugi Muneyuki stood behind the podium, before him a row of microphones; his gaze swept over the waiting faces, then he spoke: "Regarding the Kobe City Black Dahlia case, the Special Mission Division has completed preliminary investigation. We have confirmed the perpetrator's identity—one by one: team doctor of the Seibu Lions, former Olympic judo champion, Ahiru Ken. His DNA highly matches the trace sample taken from Yamada Reika's apartment scene. He used the identity of a 'Cat's Investigation Team' member to enter the scene and commit the crime. Simultaneously, we have found the bodies of Yamada Reika's four children, confirming they were killed. Ahiru Ken was formally arrested early today; case evidence will be transferred to the prosecution."

After a brief silence, it exploded.

Someone shouted "Where's the evidence?", someone shouted "Hasn't Hyogo Prefectural Police already closed the case?", someone shouted "What about Souda Sosuke?" Uesugi Muneyuki stood behind the microphone, looking at the erupting faces, without raising his voice, but his voice, amplified by the megaphone, clearly rose above all the noise.

"We of the Special Mission Division believe Souda Sosuke is highly likely innocent. His confession was made after prolonged interrogation by Hyogo Prefectural Police; we have reason to suspect it was involuntary. Hyogo Prefectural Police used improper methods during interrogation. The Special Mission Division has gathered sufficient evidence to prove Ahiru Ken has major relevance to this case!"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the faces frantically taking notes.

"The detailed evidence chain will be published after this case is formally transferred to the prosecution. Today's press conference ends here."

He turned and stepped down from the podium. Flashlights behind him blazed into a white sea of light, those lights spreading across the conference hall walls like countless stars simultaneously exploding.

He did not look back, leaving only a silhouette holding a bag of tangerines for all Japanese media.

And as this news was released, Japanese and even global media erupted!

What the hell?!? Souda Sosuke isn't the killer?!?