Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 450, A Bloody Black Valentine's Day!

The cold morning wind blew into Masayoshi Okada's slightly oversized coat, and the wound on his back brought a faint stinging pain with each breath, reminding him that it had not yet healed.

He shouldn't have been discharged. The attending physician's instructions were still ringing in his ears: rest, avoid strenuous activity, and have regular check-ups.

But he came back, on this Black Valentine's Day night.

What prompted him to leave the VIP ward, filled with the smell of disinfectant and an invisible pressure, without even notifying the hospital, was not a romantic impulse, but a deeper, more professional unease.

While chasing the ghost in Toshima Ward, he risked his life to save a five-year-old girl (because there was another little girl nearby at the time, some reports said he saved both of them, while others focused on him taking a knife for a little girl). As a result, he became a national hero and received numerous honors. Amidst the endless praise from the outside world, he also sensed something different.

The public outcry was too fierce, the airport stakeout was too precise, and the news release seemed to be a pre-edited and prepared manuscript, quickly launching a fierce attack on his wife, Miki Okada!
This led to immense pressure on Okada Miki, the wife of the national hero, during this period.

Masayoshi Okada witnessed this scene and felt deeply pained, especially after Miki Okada tearfully told him that she had already slept with Yu Yu. Masayoshi Okada realized that there was very likely someone behind this media storm.

His father was Masahiro Okada, the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency!
Okada Masahiro knew his father well; that so-called "concern" was by no means well-intentioned.

Father, are you going to take away even this little bit of happiness from me?

Father!!!!!!
Recalling Miki's breakdown at the airport and her subsequent silence, an ominous premonition, like a cold vine, coiled around his heart.

He couldn't let Miki face the pressure her father might exert alone, especially at her most vulnerable time. It was about responsibility, and also about a lingering, unacknowledged attachment. He needed to go home.

This is a husband's responsibility and a man's promise!
When he married Miki, he promised that he would do his best to protect her, cherish her, and not care about her past. He said that they would face the new future together.

To comfort his wife who kept saying that the money was all gone, Masayoshi Okada said that he would hand over all of his bonus as soon as it was deposited into his account. He also happily announced that he had received a salary increase and could now hand over 55 yen a month!
Unexpectedly, Miki scolded her husband for this, saying that it was absurd for him to stay in the Special Missions Division as the head of the Special Missions Division instead of being promoted to superintendent.

This made Okada feel even more guilty towards his wife.

As my wife, Miki must have been under a lot of pressure.

We are all struggling to live!
Today was supposed to be the day for his follow-up appointment, and he absolutely couldn't go home. He had already informed Miki, but the attending physician in charge of the examination had an emergency surgery scheduled. Okada's injury had also entered a stable phase, so Okada voluntarily requested to postpone it for a day, and the doctor agreed. However, the others didn't know this, so he made an excuse to slip away. The others thought he was going for a follow-up appointment and didn't pay any attention.

In April, the wind in Tokyo was still exceptionally cold, and occasional cold snaps meant that Tokyo would sometimes experience a snowfall in April. Masayoshi Okada returned alone to the apartment where he and his wife lived.

Because he had almost severed ties with his father, and Okada had to hand over his entire police inspector's salary, the apartment the couple lived in was relatively simple and not high-end.

While he stood in the hallway for a long time, pondering how to win his wife's forgiveness, Okada encountered his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Yoneda.

"Oh? Inspector Okada, you're back? Well... while you were away, a... um... a very energetic young man came to see your wife two or three times recently... He's quite tall, dressed very fashionably, and drives a bright yellow sports car. He seems... he seems to be a waiter?" Mrs. Yoneda was surprised to hear Inspector Okada return home, and she hesitated to speak.

"Male waiter?"

Okada Masayoshi wondered why the waiter had come to his house.
"Yes," Mrs. Yoneda gave an awkward smile and quickly slipped away.

He gently opened the apartment door with his key, his movements even carrying a hint of deliberate caution, wanting to give Miki, who might still be sulking or depressed, a... well, not exactly a surprise, but at least a signal that "I'm back." He tried to force a tired smile onto his face.

"Miki, I'm going back..."

The door was halfway open, and the overwhelming, nauseating stench of blood slammed into his face like a solid fist! His smile froze and shattered instantly.

The view from the living room crept in through the crack in the door, instantly draining all his strength and thoughts.

The light was pale.

On an ordinary Muji carpet, there were large patches of thick, dark red blood that were still slowly spreading.

At the center of the pool of blood was his nominal wife, Miki Okada.

She lay on her back in a contorted position, her expensive silk nightgown soaked in blood. A gleaming fruit knife was deeply embedded in her left breast, only the cold hilt visible. Her eyes were wide open, pupils dilated, frozen in a final look of terror and disbelief, staring blankly at the ceiling.

In the hallway leading from the entrance to the living room, another man—a young, unfamiliar, and stylishly dressed man, but also covered in blood—lies face down, his head grotesquely dented and stained with blood, and beneath him lies a pool of glaring red.

Deathly silence. Only the heavy stench of blood seemed to be howling in silence.

The rose in her hand fell to the ground.

Okada Masayoshi's mind went blank, as if struck by a heavy hammer. A tremendous shock and incomprehensible terror gripped him instantly. He was like someone nailed to a doorway, unable to move, his vision filled only with the blinding red and Miki's empty eyes. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, crashing against his still-healing wound, bringing a tearing pain, but it was nothing compared to the agony of the scene before him. "No…it can't be…" he gasped, his body staggering forward uncontrollably.

Just then, Mrs. Yoneda's hesitant words from the hallway he had just encountered exploded in his chaotic mind like a devil's curse, without warning and with perfect clarity.

He recognized who the dead man was!
It's Ryosuke Koizumi, a bartender friend of Miki's favorite nightclub!

But why is he in his own home?
When Okada Masayoshi's mind was in a complete fog, he saw several small boxes on the table.

Okamoto 001! Okamoto Wolf Thorn Design! Okamoto Ribbed Design!

Masayoshi Okada's gaze was drawn as if by a magnet, suddenly fixing on the coffee table in the living room, where several yellow Okamoto cigarettes lay scattered and rolled! One of them had been torn open, its contents removed, leaving only the packaging bag, which was soaking at the edge of the pool of blood spreading from beneath Miki, the bright plastic stained with an eerie dark red.

This...this doesn't seem to be my size...

boom--!
Okada was trembling all over. Reason told him a fact that he was unwilling to admit, but had to admit!

The stranger lying in a pool of blood, Ryosuke Koizumi, a bartender she had met once before... was Miki's lover!
My wife really liked that store and even said they were good friends!
The overwhelming sense of betrayal, like a poisoned icicle, pierced his heart, already numb with shock! It turned out that beyond the vortex of public opinion lay a deeper shame! It turned out that the person he had rushed back despite his injuries to "protect" was already behind him...

"Ugh—!" A suppressed growl, a mixture of excruciating pain, grief, nausea, and utter collapse, squeezed from the depths of his throat. His vision blurred, his body swayed, and he almost collapsed into a pool of blood.

In that moment of utter despair and unbearable pain...

Waaah—waaah—waaah—!
The piercing, sharp sirens, growing louder as they approached, tore through the night sky outside the apartment like a death knell!
Flashes of red and blue light pierced through the window, spinning wildly and eerily, casting an ominous and suffocating light and shadow over the bloody hellish scene in the living room!

The police have arrived?
Why? The police are coming. What happened to me? What's going on?
Okada Masayoshi trembled violently, as if he had been struck by a high-voltage electric current!

He looked up abruptly, his bloodshot eyes staring in terror at the flashing police lights outside the window. Then he looked down at himself—he was standing right in the center of the crime scene, his wife's blood lying at his feet, his hands… He instinctively raised his hands and discovered that his fingertips were stained with thick, dark red blood!
He then realized that he had lost his mind in extreme shock and had rushed over to check on his wife, only to find himself stained with her blood.

Etc., etc!
In that case... the motive (wife's infidelity + public pressure)! The scene! Blood on his hands!

A former police inspector who "fled to evade punishment"!

All the "evidence" and logical chains, urged on by the sirens, instantly formed a cold, desperate, and inescapable giant net in his mind!

"It wasn't me...it wasn't me!" He tried to shout, but his throat felt constricted, and he could only manage a wheezing sound.

The immense injustice and fear overwhelmed him like a tsunami.

He knew that once the police stormed in and saw him standing there, blood on his hands, facing the corpses of his wife and lover… he would never be able to clear his name, even if he jumped into Tokyo Bay! He would be nailed to the pillar of shame for murder, never to be redeemed! Everything he had fought for, his badge, his honor, even his life… would all come to an end!
The instinct for survival bursts forth with its final strength in the depths of despair!

"run!"

The thought exploded in his mind like a thunderclap!

He didn't even have time to look at Miki's unseeing face again, and he ignored the excruciating pain in his back that felt like it was being torn apart again from the violent movement, before he turned around abruptly!
He mustered all his strength, like a wounded beast cornered in a desperate situation, and burst forth with astonishing speed, rushing towards the opposite direction of the apartment's main entrance—the side door leading to the emergency fire escape!
The very next second after he burst through the fire escape door and disappeared into the dark stairwell.

Pat pat pat~
Heavy footsteps, accompanied by the authoritative shouts of the police, came clearly from the direction of the apartment's main entrance!

"Police! Open the door! Someone nearby called the police saying you're arguing, making noise, and disturbing the peace. Open the door!"

"Where are you? Open the door, we're the police!"

At the door, several police officers from the nearby area were knocking when they suddenly saw the emergency fire escape in the distance of the apartment building open.

“Nani???”

The police officers at the scene realized something was wrong and their expressions changed drastically.

All that Okada Masayoshi left for the police was a panicked and desperate figure, stained with the blood of the victims, disappearing into the darkness.

"A major event has occurred! A major event has occurred!"

"Suspicious person on the run, requesting backup!!!"

(End of this chapter)