Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 263, The Night Before the Wedding

October in Tokyo is already autumnal. The dampness of the autumn rain has seeped into the door frame on the far east side of the third floor, where a plastic sign that reads "YKC48 Dormitory" sways slightly next to the rusty mailbox.

The exterior walls of the reinforced concrete building, built in 1998, are covered with air conditioner units. Three of them have handwritten warning notes from members: "Please turn off the bathroom exhaust fan when you turn on the air conditioner."

After a long day of activities, Miyawaki Sakura pushed open the iron door of room 304, which was covered with takeout flyers. In the entryway, there were fifteen pairs of training shoes crammed into seven discounted shoe cabinets. The bottom pair of black loafers with the heels coming unglued had "for performance" tape on them. The living room, about the size of a 12-tatami mat, had two sets of second-hand sofas piled up, with faded fabric printed with the dark patterns of general election campaign posters.

"Ouch!"

Sakura lay back on the sofa, completely unwilling to move.

I'm exhausted!

Since being hit by a pie falling from the sky, Sakura received a formal offer from Fuji TV and will become a regular guest on a new prime-time program centered around Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai. Although she is only a placard girl, this is a qualitative leap for Sakura's career.

More importantly, Sakura has become a hot commodity in the eyes of the operations team.

YKC48 belongs to Yoshimoto Kogyo, which was in a state of chaos and confusion due to this case. The only consolation was that Miyawaki Sakura got a permanent role because of Uesugi Shiroma's affection. The management took note of this and immediately changed Miyawaki Sakura to a personal manager. They also planned to change her to a better and bigger apartment, with a walk-in closet.

However, before that...

The girl rested on the sofa for a while, then sneakily hid in the closet and secretly took out a secret old Nokia phone from a hidden compartment in a small shoebox inside the closet.

Sure enough! A message came from "over there"!
What? In the end, I wasn't credited at all!
Sakura curled up deep inside the closet, pouting, thinking, "I've tried so hard, how could Hiroyuki Miyano have been exposed if it weren't for me?"

Fortunately, "over there" was dissatisfied with the lack of progress on Sakura's part. This incident had finally touched on something, so they instructed her to continue the investigation and also expressed their approval of the girl's relationship with Uesugi Shiroma.

Turning off her phone and carefully tucking the Nokia into the hidden compartment of the shoebox, Sakura immediately came out of the closet, ready to record a short video for herself and continue to follow the progress of the Yoshimoto case.

When will Fuji TV broadcast this program?

After checking her phone several times, Fuji TV released another three-minute trailer, finally featuring her in a scene. With the number of views exceeding three million, Sakura excitedly rolled around on the sofa a few times before immediately taking a shower, changing clothes, and putting on makeup.

Strike! Strike hard! If not now, when?

After gathering her emotions and adjusting the lighting, Miyawaki Sakura took a deep breath and started recording the program.

"Konnie Chicken Sakura Sakura~ Hello everyone, this is Sakura from Kagoshima, Kyushu!"

"As you can see, I was fortunate enough to participate in the recording of Fuji TV's program that day~ Thank you for your attention, but I'm sorry, I can't reveal too much to you yet, but please look forward to the broadcast!"

"Speaking of the show's recording, I met Uesugi-san and Shirakawa-san on set. They were both incredibly polite and incredibly talented people! I even struck up a conversation with Shirakawa-san and Uesugi-san, and they called me Sakura-chan too~"

Normally, a single video of Sakura only gets a few thousand to tens of thousands of views.

This video was only posted for half an hour when it got over 50,000 views. People kept asking what happened, what kind of person is Uesugi Muneyuki and Shirakawa Mai, and how you became so familiar with them.

Sakura didn't reply. The girl, who was skilled in fishing, knew very well that sometimes it was important to maintain a bit of mystery.

As the number of followers and views continued to rise, the pure and innocent Sakura, who had the pristine sky of Kagoshima, Kyushu, suddenly underwent a change, and a touch of multicolored black appeared in her eyes.

Three years in the capital are not as valuable as a chance encounter; choices seem to be far more important than hard work.

Oh no, I've gotten addicted to it, and it seems like I can't go back to the way things were.

The words Inspector Shiratori had said kept replaying in her mind.

Over there, it seems they also hope for themselves...

........................

Meanwhile, at 1802 Sakata Bridge Tower, Bunkyo Ward, the Uesugi Residence.

"Mmm~ Mmmmm~ Mmm↑ Mmm→ Mmm↓~"

Miss Minami leaned back on the soft sofa, pouting, looking both frustrated and helpless.

"What's wrong, Minami?" Uesugi Muneyuki asked, somewhat amused. He and Minami were watching TV together, while Asuka was giving Minami a massage. Of course, Uesugi Muneyuki had serious doubts about how much strength Asuka's small hands actually had.

Rena Ikeda volunteered to wash the dishes. The tall beauty thought to herself, "Now that I've washed the dishes, Uesugi should at least give me the key, right?"

The tall, curvaceous woman in an apron, her back to the living room, was as beautiful as a painting. Especially after being with Uesugi Muneyuki, Ikeda's figure seemed to become even more perfect. It's just that she shouldn't get any bigger; if she did, Erina-sensei would have to quit her job at the Metropolitan Police Department and work for Azur Lane.

Yes, Minami-sama came to Sakata Bridge today. Hmm, does that count as a visit? Uesugi Muneyuki doesn't know either.

"I always feel like Mai Shirakawa is so popular!" Minami said, agonizingly. "There's news about you and her everywhere! You two are practically the protagonists of a Monday night romance drama!"

"And I, Muneyuki-kun's real fiancée, the daughter of the Superintendent General of Police, and the head of the Special Missions Division of the Criminal Investigation Department's First Investigation Division, wasn't even mentioned in the news!" Minami shouted, expressing her anger. "Even Ikeda, even Ikeda made an appearance! Why wasn't I mentioned? I'm the one who's going to elope with Muneyuki-kun!"

Uesugi Muneyuki glanced at Minami-sama with a sidelong look, finding it both amusing and somewhat somber.

He had already learned from Minami about the punishment outcome of the Yokohama case.

Now, based on the spirit of Kudo Gen'i, Uesugi Muneyuki has basically confirmed one thing.

The mastermind behind this is that Representative Yuasa, and Aiko Igarashi does indeed have a grudge against him!

In the end, the only outcome was that he took the initiative to admit his mistake and apologize, and was demoted slightly in a perfunctory manner.

Even Eiji Watanabe was very dissatisfied with the outcome, let alone Muneyuki Uesugi.
But my great Japan has its own national circumstances.

Uesugi Muneyuki has always wanted to criticize a very bad historical habit of the Japanese—the lack of clarity in rewards and punishments.

Early Japan did not have written laws. Japan's first law came from the "Great Tang Code" brought back from Tang China by envoys to Tang China. After Prince Shotoku and others studied it and changed the name slightly (referring to changing "Tang" on the cover to "Daobao"), the "Daobao Code" was officially promulgated.

However, the Taihō Code was severely ill-suited to the Japanese context from the moment it was created. The Tang Dynasty system, which was simply copied, did not fit the national conditions of Japan. In addition, the emperor soon lost power, which led to chaos in the judicial system.

Under Minamoto no Yoritomo's leadership, the samurai gradually established a system of rewards based on "respect for the emperor's favor," but the system of punishments was a mess. For the samurai, minor offenses were dealt with leniently by admitting their mistakes and begging for forgiveness, while serious offenses were dealt with by seppuku.

This bad habit persisted into the postwar period. After Emperor Munakata's reforms, Japan entered modern society. In modern society, it was impossible to order seppuku for even slightly serious crimes. As a result, many crimes were simply met with an apology, a meager punishment, a demotion, and a temporary reprieve. After a while, the punishment was vaguely promoted, and ultimately, no substantial or meaningful punishment was ever carried out.

It seems that to further investigate the host killer in the other world, we still need to rely on our own and Mai-senpai's inside-world connections.

"You failed the physical test, didn't you?" Uesugi Muneyuki felt that he couldn't bring the problems from the inside into the outside world, so he put away his dissatisfaction and smiled, "The physical test standards for female detectives are 15 seconds for 100 meters and 4 minutes and 21 seconds for 800 meters before the age of 30, and 17 seconds for 100 meters and 4 minutes and 48 seconds for 800 meters after the age of 31. These are already very lenient conditions."

"Waaah~ I can't do it!" Minami lowered her head in frustration.

"Then you can have Erena train with you every day before you leave work these days." Uesugi Muneyuki glanced at Erena, who was washing dishes.

"I'm available anytime," Erena replied readily. "If the section chief needs it..."

"Then I'll have to rely on you, Ikeda! This is the key to whether I can be promoted to Special Missions Officer! My life depends on this moment!" Minami, with a bitter face, threw herself into Uesugi Muneyuki's arms for comfort: "Otherwise, I'll have to pretend I'm pregnant and say that Uesugi-kun forced himself on me against my will~"

"Hey! Are you trying to send me to jail for three years?!" Uesugi Muneyuki was startled.

"Hahaha~ I'm sorry, Zongxue-kun, that's not what I meant~" "Hahahaha~" Minami amused herself, while Ikeda laughed so hard he was doubled over and shaking uncontrollably.

Saito Asuka couldn't help but laugh from behind. The housekeeper Asuka was wearing a black and white maid outfit today, paired with a white scarf on her head and thick white pantyhose. She looked so tender and cute, like an angel.

The girl seems to gloat over other people's embarrassing moments, but she doesn't usually show it. She only reveals her true self at home, especially after getting to know Minami-neechan.

This girl seems to have the genes for darkness as well. Uesugi Muneyuki gently patted Minami's back to comfort and encourage her, thinking to himself unconsciously.

Dark Bird, Black Cherry.

And then there's that arrogant, haughty, and domineering Pingshou.

Why are all the underage girls I know so strange?

"Oh, by the way, speaking of which, Uesugi, your brother's wedding is in a few days, right?" Minami suddenly remembered something.

“Yes, that’s right. Are you going to attend?” Uesugi Muneyuki nodded.

"Of course! You must be kidding me, Zongxue-kun! I'm your fiancée! If I don't attend, who will?" Miss Minami said fiercely. "Oh, and by the way, Erina and Asuka, you two have to attend the engagement ceremony in a month. Stand up for me!"

Erina and Asuka both nodded, the Metropolitan Police Department alliance was unbreakable!

And so, while Fuji TV was still working hard to get through the Ministry of Justice and urging the district prosecutors to quickly complete the evidence review and file a public prosecution so that the program could be broadcast, the wedding ceremony at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was held as scheduled on October 21.

The next head of the Yonezawa Uesugi family, Uesugi Muneyuki's older brother Uesugi Sadanori, has officially gotten married!
(End of this chapter)