Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 505, A Shocking Discovery!

Kitanomaru Park and the nearby forest were completely closed at 4:30 p.m.

Minami Watanabe has officially received the highest level of authority from the Cabinet Emergency Crisis Center. From now on, she is qualified to directly command the entire Imperial Household Agency and the Imperial Palace Police Headquarters.

Minami Watanabe dared not be negligent. After taking command, she immediately established the Imperial Palace Special Investigation Headquarters around her, with herself in charge of the headquarters and Yui Nanago in charge of the front line, and began a carpet search of Kitanomaru Park.

The Imperial Palace Police Force, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police Department's Special Missions Unit, began a step-by-step search of any suspicious areas, focusing on the region where unusual shoe prints and diatom anomalies had been discovered.

Similarly, Uesugi Muneyuki and Ishihara Mikoto also arrived at the scene. Ishihara Mikoto was responsible for testing the humus and leaf characteristics, while Uesugi Muneyuki stood by the lake thinking.

Without a doubt, the murderer is an entity from another world. All we know so far is that he can hide in the shadows, but he has to reveal himself when faced with the bright light of the Imperial Household Agency's flashlight.

Uesugi Muneyuki had seen the flashlights provided by the Imperial Household Agency, and frankly, they were a bit too bright; in high-power mode, they could even illuminate things a hundred meters away.

Therefore, Uesugi Muneyuki concluded that since the killer could be seen by strong light, it was absolutely impossible for him to have been in water.

Kitanomaru Park is densely forested and is separated from the Imperial Palace moat by only one road (Chidori-ga-buchi-dori), but its boundary is not entirely seamless.

The perpetrator most likely used the cover of darkness and trees to approach from the outside of the park.

He chose a section of the outer wall and a blind spot in the surveillance (possibly due to trees or slightly undulating terrain), and used his special ability to enter the palace through the shadows. After landing inside the wall, he quickly slipped into the dense woodland and moved along the edge of the forest towards the waters inside the palace. This path avoided most of the open areas and the surveillance of the main passageways.

During this process, the soles of his shoes became covered with soil unique to Kitanomaru Forest, rich in humus and pine needles.

He encountered Akio Ishimuro in a secluded spot near the Kitanomaru waters, was exposed to a bright light, committed the crime, and pushed the body into the water.

The body then drifted with the weak current or wind to the more central location where it was found.

Therefore, there must be traces of his activities at Kitanomaru Park!

So the question is, what exactly did the murderer want to do by breaking into the Imperial Palace?
The people of the Otherworld have gained new abilities and are eager to test them?
It doesn't seem likely; it's impossible to conduct tests at the Imperial Palace.

Did they come in out of curiosity to see what the Imperial Palace is like inside? Or did they come in to steal something?
Both of these are possible.

Do you have a grudge against someone in the Imperial Family or the Imperial Household Agency?

The probability is not very high, but there is a slight possibility.

The more important question is, where is he now? Has he left the Imperial Palace?

Uesugi Muneyuki didn't know, but he thought he should be able to find some clues.

"Search! Search thoroughly! Don't miss a single blade of grass or tree! Search every inch of land, every trace of movement!" Almost all the palace police were mobilized, meticulously checking Kitanomaru Park step by step. These long-time thugs were now putting in their best effort.

If this matter is handled poorly, they will all be finished!
But there are limits to my individual strength.

Uesugi Muneyuki looked at the hundreds of Imperial Palace police and Special Missions Unit personnel conducting a step-by-step search along Kitanomaru Park, and could only wait for the search results.

"Mikoto-nee, have you sent those fiber particles for testing?" Uesugi Muneyuki, finding himself with nothing to do, could only ask Ishihara Mikoto beside him.

"Yes, it's been sent to the lab for testing and spectral mapping." Ishihara Mikoto also looked worried. The forensic beauty whispered, "Muneyuki, what do you think... what if that person is still hiding inside the Imperial Palace?"

“That would be an interesting story, but I think it’s unlikely.” Uesugi Muneyuki shook his head slightly. “First of all, the Imperial Palace is very spacious, making it difficult to find a place to hide. Secondly, after such a major incident, staying inside the Imperial Palace would be foolish, unless…”

"Unless?" Reina Ikeda asked curiously. The tall beauty was always responsible for catching up on Uesugi Muneyuki's jokes and questions when he hesitated to speak.

This role is perfect for her, and she loves it.

“Unless the murderer was originally from the Imperial Household Agency or the Imperial Palace Police,” Uesugi Muneyuki said calmly.

"Hiss~" Upon hearing Uesugi Muneyuki's words, Ishihara Mikoto and Ikeda Erena gasped.

If the murderer is inside, then wouldn't that mean...?

"No rush, don't jump to conclusions. Let's see if we can find any clues first." Uesugi Muneyuki gazed at the search team from afar.

If there really is a mole, then this matter is even more troublesome!

The search lasted a full hour, and finally, around 5:30 p.m., the search team made a discovery!
"Chief Uesugi, we've found something! We've found something!" Igarashi rushed over, his expression excited: "We found a shoe print, the same as the one by the lake, even clearer, on the soft ground under a tree inside the palace wall! And on a nearby corner of the wall, we found extremely fine, bright blue plastic fragments, the same as those found under the victim's fingernails—most likely caused by the murderer rubbing against the wall with a rope or tool they were carrying!"

"where?"

"plz follow me!"

Uesugi Muneyuki immediately went to the place where the shoe prints were found.

As Igarashi stated, the discovery of the shoe print and the bright blue particles left behind indicate that the killer had passed through this area.

So, does that mean the killer actually infiltrated from the outside?
Uesugi Muneyuki pondered for a moment, then decided to investigate using normal methods first. "Officer, please immediately request access to the surveillance footage and patrol records from the Imperial Household Agency," Uesugi Muneyuki said to the person behind him.

To protect privacy, most of the Imperial Palace is unmonitored, with surveillance only at key entrances and exits and in some important locations requiring vigilance. Even so, the Imperial Household Agency remains tight-lipped about this.

“Okay.” Minami responded quickly from behind. She even said, “Don’t worry, Muneyuki has already asked my father to review all the surveillance cameras outside Kitanomaru to see if we can find anything more.”

“Very good.” Uesugi Muneyuki smiled after hearing this, and then suddenly laughed, “Minami, you’re quite good at solving cases now.”

"Isn't it all because I learned it from you? Uesugi's three-piece investigative set: surveillance footage, autopsy, and lab analysis. I don't know anything about autopsies or lab analysis, so naturally I just look at surveillance footage!" Minami said angrily into the walkie-talkie. "I've worked on so many cases with you, how could I not know anything?"

"Then let's get moving." Uesugi Muneyuki put down the walkie-talkie.

Meanwhile, Minami immediately contacted the Imperial Household Agency Commissioner Toshiyuki Maeda and the Imperial Palace Police Chief Yukiatsu Gondo.

Faced with Minami's request, Maeda Risuke readily agreed, while Gondo Yukiatsu grumbled, "This is His Majesty's privacy," and reluctantly agreed, sending his subordinates to retrieve the patrol records.

It's not that General Manager Gondo is unwilling to give it to him, but rather that he feels guilty!

The palace police had been living in peace for a long time, and their daily patrols were just routine and perfunctory. He knew how unproductive these patrols were; unless they discovered something that absolutely had to be reported, they would all just fill in "no abnormalities".

This is His Majesty's land, the most important place in the land. Who would want to cause trouble for themselves here?
Otherwise, why did Akio Ishimuro drown last night, only to be discovered by the gardener this morning? Are these palace police blind?

No, that's not true at all. The palace police's patrols were really just patrols.

Soon, the Imperial Palace Police Headquarters retrieved the patrol logs provided by the Imperial Palace Police. The logs showed that during the time period of the incident, two patrol teams passed through the Kitanomaru area "according to the prescribed route," and the logs recorded "no abnormalities."

Minami Watanabe was not surprised by the result. She sighed and handed the patrol log to Yui Nango, indicating that he should compare it with the surveillance footage.

Nanxiang Weiyi didn't care at first. He glanced at the patrol log a few times and then focused his attention on the surveillance footage. He thought to himself that everyone knew how bad the level of these routine patrols was. As long as nothing happened, they would only become more and more lax. That was human nature, and there was nothing that could be done about it.

So he habitually glanced at the time in the upper right corner of the monitor screen.

But in that one glance, Nango Yui's pupils suddenly tightened, shrinking to the size of marbles!

"Wait!" the acting head of the Special Missions Department suddenly roared, "This is it!"

He yelled at the palace police technician, "Here, in here!"

"Like this?" The technician was startled and very annoyed, but still did as Nango Yui asked.

"Yes, here!"

"Fast forward! Here!"

"Back off, here!"

Nango shouted several times, locking the surveillance camera onto the spot where the Imperial Palace Police patrol had found the footprints: "It's here!"

"This place, Nanxiang Sang, is nothing special. It's just where the patrol team passed by." The technician was still puzzled.

"No, it's the time! The time is wrong!"

"Supervisor! Commander Maeda! Chief Gondo! Look at this! At the crucial moment of the incident, the Imperial Palace Police patrol passed through the relevant area approximately fifteen minutes later than the time recorded in the logs!" Nango Yui pointed to the time in the upper right corner of the screen, then to the time the Imperial Palace Police patrol passed through: "This is wrong! It doesn't match the records!"

Everyone in the temporary command post held their breath.

This 15-minute gap was just enough for the murderer to complete the entire process of scaling the wall, sneaking in, encountering the suspect, killing him, dumping the body, and then escaping the same way he came!

“Someone altered the patrol records.” Minami Watanabe’s voice was as cold as ice. “This is something an outside intruder couldn’t have done. This means that someone within the Imperial Palace Police… no, it could even be within the Imperial Household Agency, knew about the patrol loophole beforehand, or… deliberately created the loophole and then tried to cover it up!”

The mole!

This conclusion sent a chill down the spines of everyone in the know.

The fact that someone was able to infiltrate the Imperial Palace is already a shocking breach, but the betrayal by an insider is even more egregious, meaning that the security of the Imperial Palace has been hollowed out from within, and the safety of the Imperial Family may be in extreme danger for a long time.

Inside the temporary command post, Chief Gondo of the Imperial Palace Police Headquarters turned deathly pale, while Chief Maeda of the Imperial Household Agency's eyes, in addition to the existing panic, showed shock and anger at being stabbed in the back by someone he trusted.

The nature of the case escalated instantly from an internal accident or external intrusion into a massive case involving a coordinated attack on the royal family's security, a failed terrorist attack, and internal betrayal.

"Call Zongxue back! Call Uesugi back immediately!" Minami exclaimed.

Something terrible has happened! Something drastic has happened!

(End of this chapter)