Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 51, Secret Search

"This is where you two will stay for the time being." In the Odaiba building, the security guard led Uesugi Sosetsu and Ikeda Ereina to a small artist lounge. "The police are searching each floor. If you need food and water, there is a convenience store on this floor, but please don't wander around. The Metropolitan Police Department is searching."

"Thank you." Uesugi Sosetsu thanked the security guard.

The door closed and there were two people left in the room.

The artist's small lounge is really not big. A lot of things have to be crammed into a room of about 15 square meters. Besides a row of makeup mirrors and dressing tables, there are only four sofas and a coffee table in the middle, and a bathroom in the corner.

"I'll take a shower first." Ikeda Erina found that the bathroom had a shower function. The tall beauty who had been working outside all day couldn't help but say. She waved her fist at the man: "If you don't want to die, don't make trouble for me!"

"I'll go out and see what's going on." Uesugi Sosetsu held his stomach, thinking, who is so desperate to peek at you?
The security guard had previously asked whether the two people should be arranged separately, with Uesugi going to squeeze with the male staff and Ikeda going to squeeze with the female artists. It was said that Ikeda Erena would be arranged with a former idol artist Kawabe Mayu.

Erina refused decisively. First of all, she didn't like getting along with strangers. It would be more comfortable to be with Uesugi Sosetsu than with a female artist she didn't know at all. Secondly, she was absolutely confident in her skills. If Uesugi Sosetsu really wanted to do anything to her, she would beat his brains out!

Damn, it looks like this guy has already done it!

The culprit had already left. The tall beauty locked the door of the lounge, took a shower angrily, and changed back into her police uniform after washing herself refreshed. The only difference was that she finally took off her damn stockings and stuffed them into her bag while Uesugi Souji was away. She stepped barefoot in disposable slippers, blew her hair with a hair dryer, and let out a long sigh of relief.

Now I feel much more comfortable!

However, after waiting for a while, Uesugi Sosetsu did not come back, leaving Erina sitting alone on the sofa.

For the first time, the policewoman suddenly didn't know what she should do.

He is not by my side, and I have nothing to do. When I go out, I meet strangers everywhere. I don’t need to cook or eat, do housework, and it is not time to exercise or sleep.

What should she do now?

She didn't know that after working with Uesugi Sosetsu for so long, she had become accustomed to listening to his arrangements and watching his performances without thinking.

Staring blankly at the ceiling, Erina's mind was empty.

She was safe. She had mastered martial arts at the national level. The door was locked and there were people everywhere outside.

She felt very insecure. Without the man around, she felt helpless and at a loss, and a sense of panic that she was not needed gradually spread.

Fortunately, Uesugi Sosetsu didn't make her wait too long. About 30 minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Erina jumped up from the sofa as if she had been electrocuted, and ran to open the door in her slippers.

As expected, it was Uesugi Sosetsu who came back. He smiled apologetically at Ereina and raised the convenience store bag in his hand: "Have you been waiting for a long time? Sorry."

"What did you do?" Seeing the man's subconsciously relaxed expression, Erina complained, "Why did you take so long?"

The comfortable feeling of security is back!
"I walked around a bit." Uesugi Sosetsu sat down on the sofa. "The Odaiba building is really closed. No one is allowed to go out. Higurashi is preparing to conduct a search."

"Don't they want our help?" Seeing Uesugi Sosetsu sitting down, Ikeda Erena took out cosmetics from her bag and touched up her makeup. When she talked about being rejected, she pouted angrily.

"Oh, by the way, this is for you." Uesugi Sosetsu took out a bottle of sugar-free Suntory Oolong tea from the bag. He remembered that Erena liked to drink this brand, just like Erena remembered that he liked to drink Coca-Cola: "And this."

The man took out an unopened pack of thick wooden stockings from the bag and said, "You've been running all day, change into a new pair."

Reina speechlessly took the Atsugi brand's extra-long standard commuter pantyhose.

"This is a 40D long version made of ultra-soft velvet." Uesugi Munen said naturally, "It should be more suitable for you."

"I always feel like you're particularly knowledgeable about this... Even if you buy it for me, you should buy flesh-colored ones, right?" Erina muttered, but still took the stockings in her hand.

Bare legs is considered extremely disrespectful, at least in formal settings in Japan.

"There are gray, flesh-colored, brown, and black. I compared them and thought black would look best on you." Uesugi Sosetsu said casually, "So I chose black."

"Who asked you to choose? Police uniforms are always flesh-colored. Remember this next time."

After waiting for a while, Erina's pair of straight long legs were wrapped in this 40D extremely soft velvet black pantyhose. The plump leg meat stretched the slightly thin black stockings just right, and the non-transparent black stockings set off the whiteness of her thigh skin. Her delicate and small feet were wearing disposable slippers, and the graceful curves of the entire arch and instep were in full view. Under the slightly thickened black silk toes, ten crystal clear jade toes were clearly visible.

Both parties ate a Snickers bar and drank some water, and then Uesugi Sosetsu told them what he had seen and heard outside.

"It seems that something is wrong with Ms. Hironaka." Uesugi Sosetsu whispered to Erina, "The building was sealed off after she disappeared for four days. Who would stay in a corner under surveillance without eating or drinking for four days?"

"Maybe there are some blind spots in the surveillance?" Erina smoothed out the wrinkles on the surface of the stockings with her fingers.

"No, I just checked. This is Fuji TV. There are dozens of cameras installed at the entrances and exits of the Odaiba building. Theoretically, there should be no blind spots. There are fewer cameras in other places, but most of them are covered. There are only two places without cameras. One is the bathroom, which involves personal privacy, and the other is the office space of important people and other confidential places of the TV station."

Uesugi Muneyuki pointed to the rooftop and said, "The Metropolitan Police Department is already investigating with the security. The first place they're going to check is the water tower, but I don't think it's possible that Ms. Hironaka disappeared there."

"You mean, Ms. Hironaka managed to leave the building?" Erina agreed with Uesugi Sosetsu's opinion. The tall beauty thought about it for a moment. There are cameras everywhere in the corridors, elevators, halls and rooms. How could she disappear in a high floor?
"That's difficult." Uesugi Sosetsu thought, "Ms. Hironaka is 163cm tall and weighs 53kg. If we stuff her into a suitcase, she will be very conspicuous, and the police are investigating. Alternatively, it's not realistic to stuff her into garbage bags and transport her out. But no matter whether we stuff her into a suitcase or a garbage bag, Ikeda, do you know what this means?"

"It means...she is no longer alive." Ikeda Erena looked at Uesugi Sosetsu's expression and seemed to understand something.

"No, actually, according to normal reasoning, no matter what, there is a great possibility that Ms. Hironaka is no longer alive." Uesugi Sosetsu said in a deep voice: "So my guess is that she is somewhere in this building."

"I've observed before that, except for the high-rises and external areas, the surveillance in other areas is not that intensive. If there is an insider who is familiar with the terrain and knows how to avoid surveillance and secretly hides Ms. Hongzhong somewhere, it is still possible." Uesugi Sosetsu whispered, "Shall we go look for her?"

"We look for them? Just the two of us?" Ikeda Erena was shocked by Uesugi Sosetsu's suggestion: "But, Section 1..." "Section 1 is searching from the top floor. As for the security, Ikeda, aren't you a policeman? The police will say they are assisting in the search, and the security won't say anything." Uesugi Sosetsu blinked, eager to try: "As long as we don't run into anyone from Section 1."

"This is a secret search, Master Erina, let's act together!"

Uesugi Sosetsu just looked at Erina, feeling nervous and expectant.

Erina also looked at this man and couldn't help but burst out laughing. She pinched his cool and handsome face with her hands, her eyes moist as water: "Aren't we partners?"

"Partners should act together. I'll go with you!"

"Okay~"

————I am the dividing line between partners————

Time goes back to an hour ago.

In the Fuji TV conference room, representatives from the four parties took their seats. Since they had not arrived yet, the Metropolitan Police Department connected via video link.

On the other hand, two senior executives from Dentsu and Hakuhodo had already taken their seats, and the COO of Nippon Life Insurance Company also arrived at short notice.

Nippon Life Insurance Company is the number one insurance company in Japan. If the building is to be sealed, Nippon Life will definitely have to assess the economic losses and then negotiate the amount of compensation.

The other two are representatives from Dentsu and Hakuhodo.

Dentsu is a famous Japanese advertising and communication company, that is, an advertising middleman. On the one hand, it collects planning and production fees from companies and produces advertisements for them. On the other hand, it buys out advertising time slots and pages in TV stations, newspapers and other media, arranges to run advertisements produced for companies, and earns the difference in the middle. The Japanese advertising agency market is highly monopolized by Dentsu.

Almost all large companies are Dentsu's clients, and Dentsu handles all of its advertising and even external public relations.

Because Dentsu decides where these companies' tens of billions of yen in advertising expenses go each year, and the media rely on advertising fees and program sponsorship fees for income, Dentsu has undoubtedly become the media's "breadwinner."

The advertising share of Dentsu accounts for more than 40% of the total revenue of TBS, NTV, and TV Asahi, and 33.4% of Fuji TV. It can be said that the five major Japanese private broadcasters are actually under the control of Dentsu, and in terms of print media, several major news groups such as Asahi, Yomiuri, Chunichi, Mainichi, and Sankei also rely on Dentsu.

People who work at Dentsu (especially those in charge of sales) are called "Dentsu MAN" in Japan. There is a saying in the Japanese entertainment industry that "actresses who want to become famous should marry Dentsu employees!"

Being able to marry a full-time employee of Dentsu means countless endorsements, advertisements, film contracts and exposure, which are what female stars desperately desire. Moreover, the salary of full-time employees of Dentsu is very high. By the age of 1200, the annual income based on seniority alone is more than million yen.

Of course, corresponding to this is the extremely high work intensity of Dentsu employees. It is a miracle to be able to get off work at eight or nine in the evening. Employees can only be seen going home after ten or eleven in the evening. It is not uncommon to work until three in the morning. Every year, there are one or two "deaths from overwork" at Dentsu, but due to Dentsu's monopoly on the media, these deaths will never be seen in newspapers or on the news.

Hakuhodo is the second largest media giant after Dentsu.

After the four parties negotiated for a period of time, they finally reached a consensus.

Representatives from Dentsu and Hakuhodo looked coldly at Fuji TV’s President Kameyama.

They temporarily agreed to Fuji TV's request to change the program and advertising schedule, because the "live broadcast" proposed by Production Director Abiru was considered by the two representatives to be... quite attractive after listening to it.

It was thanks to the production director's flash of inspiration that Dentsu and Hakuhodo reluctantly agreed to Fuji TV's proposal to change its broadcasting plan.

"Although we are planning to do this, how long do you plan to keep the building closed?" the Dentsu representative asked coldly, "If we can't find Hironaka Mariko, do you plan to keep closing the building? We at Dentsu have a limit to our patience!"

“And if the person is not found during the search, how long can the live broadcast continue?” A representative of Hakuhodo also raised the question: “Fuji TV does have some data and archives, but if the person is never found and the show is just repetitive, the audience will lose interest!”

"This..." President Kameyama took blood pressure medicine and said, "Please trust the Metropolitan Police Department's search capabilities. Representatives, we will try to find out where the person is in the shortest possible time."

"How long is 'as short as possible'? Kameyama! Give us a specific time!" the Dentsu representative shouted.

"If you can't handle this matter well, you should resign. Oh no, you should be prepared to be fired!" The representative of Hakuhodo was even more fierce: "Don't think we don't know about your relationship with those female anchors!"

"Three hours at most. The body of Hironaka Mariko must be found within three hours." The representative of Nippon Life Insurance also said coldly: "If it exceeds this time, our company will not bear any compensation costs. Besides, this is something you guys caused in the first place!"

“Expect the premium to increase next year!” After saying this, the representative of Nippon Life Insurance left the table in anger.

Representatives from Dentsu and Hakuhodo did not go as far as Nippon Life, but they also left, and a Fuji TV employee followed them.

The employee whispered in President Kameyama's ear: "President, NHK and the other three commercial TV stations all know about the closure of the Odaiba building, and all the major newspapers are also aware of it!"

"All the informants are heading here!"

Only the top executives of Fuji TV, led by President Kameyama, were left in the conference room. They felt like an iron wall was slowly falling, oppressing their breathing and stinging their hearts.

"Abiru, get ready." President Kameyama's mind was empty at this time. The overwhelming pressure made him calm down: "Let's not rush to start the live broadcast. Wait until other TV stations have started live broadcasting for a while, wait until the Metropolitan Police Department arrives and attracts the attention of the entire Kanto people, then we can start the live broadcast."

"Yes." Abiru nodded. Unlike President Kameyama, he was very eager to try.

Looking down from the floor-to-ceiling window, President Kameyama saw that the garden downstairs in the Odaiba Building was already packed with people, a large black mass.

"Fuji TV and the Metropolitan Police Department are actually one and the same one one day." President Kameyama looked at the direction of the Metropolitan Police Department, smiled bitterly and murmured: "Eiji, you really are not afraid of death."

"If we can't find someone, we're all doomed."

　The Fuji TV case is not the small case it once was!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)