Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 76, From Chiba

In late October, autumn slowly leaves with the last warm wind and prepares to enter winter.

Chiba Prefecture is located east of Tokyo and is an important part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, one of the three major metropolitan areas in Japan. It belongs to the Kanto region in Japan. It is located on the east side of the capital area and consists of the Kanto Plain in the north and the Boso Peninsula in the south-central part. The famous Tokyo Narita International Airport is located here, and the Tokyo Disneyland theme park is also located here.

It may be difficult for everyone to understand the status of Chiba Prefecture in Tokyo. Here is a very simple analogy.

For Tokyo, Chiba Prefecture is the "tongzhou" of Tokyo.

In fact, saying this is already a bit of an underestimation of Chiba Prefecture's status. Chiba Prefecture actually represents the capital outside the Fifth Ring Road. Similarly, Saitama and Kanagawa have a similar status.

These places are actually home to a large number of "Tokyo people", but due to factors such as land prices, rent prices, and labor costs, many office workers cannot afford to settle down in Tokyo and can only live in Kanagawa, Saitama, or Chiba. Many industries in Tokyo have also gradually moved to these places due to factors such as land prices, rent prices, and labor costs.

Japan's subway and Shinkansen system is very developed, and has completed the Shinkansen commuting system. Even if you live in the surrounding counties, the commuting time can generally be maintained at about an hour. Therefore, many low-paid office workers live in the surrounding counties and cities and take the subway and Shinkansen to work. The corresponding example in China is that people live outside the fifth ring road of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and take the subway and high-speed rail to and from get off work every day.

This morning, at Chiba Prefecture Pier, a large foreign trade warehouse.

Due to the extremely high warehousing costs in Tokyo, many large companies set up warehouses in Chiba Prefecture, Kanagawa Prefecture and other areas, especially near docks for easy transportation.

The dock manager is a man in his fifties. He used to work in the Coast Guard Self-Defense Force, then worked in shipping. He couldn't do shipping anymore, so he was arranged to be a dock manager. His life is quite comfortable.

"It stinks!" The uncle covered his nose and said, "Isn't the C2 warehouse abandoned? What on earth is stored in there? Why does it stink so much?"

The seabirds at the dock seemed to respond to the uncle's question. They let out long cries, flapped their wings and flew away. The sea water at the dock washed the seawall, and a strong salty smell hit the face, but this could not cover up the strong stench coming from nearby.

The uncle felt very strange.

The fishing industry in Tokyo Bay has basically died out due to severe pollution. Very few fishing boats fish in the inner bay waters, and the rest are all aquaculture.

Where does the smell come from?
There was a new missing person notice posted on the telephone pole next to him, which seemed to indicate that a male elementary school student was missing. After thinking it over again and again, the uncle felt that the situation had reached the point where he had to check it out.

The docks, especially the large warehouses, are not actually very safe. Many gangster transactions and dirty things happen here. The uncle usually turns a blind eye to these things. As long as they don't get out of hand, he pretends not to see them.

C2 warehouse is still an abandoned warehouse.

"Is anyone there?" The uncle opened the warehouse door and repeatedly confirmed whether there was anyone inside: "I'm the administrator, sorry to bother you!"

"Is anyone there?" Entering the warehouse, a strong stench hit him in the face. The uncle carefully turned his back to the light and lit the flashlight to check the situation in the warehouse: "Is anyone there?"

The light in the warehouse was very dim. Following the smell, the uncle slowly shone his flashlight on something.

The thing looked like a human torso, and at first the uncle thought it was a puppet structure or a mannequin, or maybe a plastic doll, because there was no blood on it.

However, when the uncle tried to get closer, a head placed on a canvas made of discarded material caught his attention.

What? You scared me!
The uncle thought, how can there be a human body model with the head and body separated?
Comforting himself in this way, the uncle slowly approached.

When you get closer, you won’t know until you see it, and you’ll be shocked!
This is not a puppet model, this is clearly a human head! A decapitated human head!

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!" The administrator uncle was so scared that he pissed his pants and sat down on the ground. His flashlight broke into pieces, and his legs squirmed a few times on the ground. He turned over and ran away, crawling.

But after all, he had worked in the Maritime Self-Defense Force, so he recovered a little after rushing out of the warehouse and called the police immediately.

Twenty minutes later, a large group of police officers from the Chiba Prefecture Police Headquarters arrived and immediately cordoned off the scene.

The sirens sounded and the yellow line was pulled up. Inspector Yukinoshita Hachiman of the Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters stared at the head with his dead fish eyes open, his pupils shrunk to the size of a needle tip.

Isn’t this... the missing 11-year-old male elementary school student, fat Junpei?
The police officers present at the scene all recalled the case of a missing elementary school student some time ago.

Looking at the decapitated heads and bodies thrown aside in the warehouse, the police in Chiba Prefecture broke out in sweat.

Now, things are getting serious!

A murder and dismemberment case, and the victim was an elementary school student?
Do we still have a chance to celebrate this New Year?

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

Tokyo, Metropolitan Police Department, cafeteria.

"I'm ready to eat!" Uesugi Sosetsu was sitting in the cafeteria. He ordered an extra-large bowl of rice with beef and egg, which came with kimchi miso soup and a fried pork cutlet snack. He was very excited.

It has been more than half a month since he was transferred to the Metropolitan Police Department. Uesugi Sosetsu has quickly adapted to the new life in the Forensic Division of the Metropolitan Police Department. The only thing that he is not used to is that Ikeda Erena did not transfer to the Metropolitan Police Department with him. She is still in the Otsuka Police Station.

Uesugi Munesetsu is still performing autopsies for a large number of police stations in western and central Tokyo, but because he has started to work in the Metropolitan Police Department's Forensic Science Division, once he is involved in a case that the Metropolitan Police Department needs to investigate, Uesugi Munesetsu must interrupt his other business and concentrate on serving the Metropolitan Police Department.

The income of 10,000 for an autopsy has actually decreased. The Metropolitan Police Department's Forensic Science Division will not pay Uesugi Sosetsu extra for the autopsy. In their opinion, the autopsy fee is already included in the salary of the on-site consultant.

Therefore, Uesugi Muneyuki's income did not increase significantly. He just relied on his temporary position to get the name of assisting in the search and obtained official permission to enter and exit the Metropolitan Police Department at will.

Miss Minami has always felt that this arrangement is a bit unfair, but Uesugi Sosetsu has no objection, as he is not mainly here for the money.

So, how good is Uesugi Sosetsu's autopsy skills?
exploded.

On-site autopsy can determine suicide, homicide or accidental death at a glance, directly demonstrate the process of death, and easily judge the relationships of the deceased through his or her life reactions. There is no need for dissection, chemical testing, or even interrogation.

Just over half a month after joining the job, Uesugi Sosetsu demonstrated his miraculous autopsy performance live to the Metropolitan Police Department.

The cause was that a little girl accidentally knocked over the boiling water on the gas stove while playing at home. The boiling water tilted and fell on the child's back, causing serious burns.

The girl was subsequently rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment, but died after two days of rescue. The attending doctor issued an unexpected diagnosis of death from burns, determining it to be an accident.

However, such cases are generally considered to be "unnatural deaths", and the girl's father also had doubts about his daughter's death. It happened that Uesugi Muneyuki was already famous and the Fujidai case left a very deep impression on him, so he called the police and asked the Metropolitan Police Department to investigate.

Uesugi Sosetsu took over and his first words were "murder".

The Metropolitan Police Department was completely confused.

Uesugi Sosetsu stripped the deceased's clothes and found a round burn on the back. The burn here was obviously different from the burns in other parts of the body. The severity of the burn decreased from the middle to the surrounding areas. Uesugi Sosetsu first gave a conclusion and then showed the evidence.

Because spilled boiling water should have an irregular shape and there was no reason for round burns to appear, Uesugi Sosetsu immediately pointed out that it was the deceased's stepmother who did it.

It turned out that the little girl's family was a reconstituted family, and her father favored his daughter more. The stepmother, who was a housewife with no source of income, had always resented her father's favoritism and was worried that her child would not receive enough financial support, so she came up with this plan to get rid of this thorn in her side.

After the interrogation, the housewife could not withstand Uesugi Sosetsu's pixel-level restoration of the scene and the police's pressure, and she confessed on the spot.

This set of operations has paralyzed the Metropolitan Police Department.

Does this work too?
numb.

This is what the police officers from the First Division of the Metropolitan Police Department thought at the scene.

It was a bit stressful, but it was also very satisfying. The police were dispatched on the same day, the investigation was conducted on the same day, the trial was conducted on the same day, and the case was closed on the same day.

When we sent the things to the local prosecutor's office, they were also confused.

Does this work too?
The prosecutors took the report nervously. Fingerprint evidence, laboratory evidence and scene reconstruction were added afterwards, after the confession.

"Young Uesugi is getting better at ordering food." Inspector Higurashi sat opposite Uesugi Sosetsu and said with a smile, "You eat in the cafeteria every day, so why don't you cook for yourself?"

"I'm so tired. What's the point of doing this?" Uesugi Sosetsu ate his meal in big mouthfuls. He had been eating in the cafeteria of the Metropolitan Police Department since he joined. Sometimes he would eat two portions when he was hungry (after all, Japanese people don't eat much). He soon got the nickname of a big eater in the Metropolitan Police Department. Some people also called him "Gluttonous Uesugi", most of which were good-natured jokes: "And Higurashi-san, you have to understand me. I deal with corpses all day long. How can I have the mood to study dishes? It's enough to make them edible."

"Haha, that's true. My wife also cooks at home and her cooking skills are pretty good." Inspector Higurashi smiled and pursed his lips: "But it's definitely not as good as your mother's, right, Inspector Watanabe?"

Watanabe Minami sat next to them, smiling but saying nothing.

Watanabe Minami's mother, Watanabe Michiko, is an extremely skilled cook and is known as the "Queen of the Culinary World".

Can I learn cooking from my mother?
Miss Minami looked at Uesugi Sosetsu wolfing down the food and was thinking in her mind.

At this moment, a piece of news suddenly appeared on the big screen in the cafeteria.

"Emergency report: a major dismemberment murder case has occurred in Chiba Prefecture!"

"The deceased is Suga Ze Yuan (pseudonym), an 11-year-old elementary school student who was reported missing by his family a few days ago. He went missing while playing after school on October 10, and his body was later found by a dock manager in an abandoned warehouse."

"The victim's head was cut off with a sharp knife. The murderer's method was extremely cruel."

"Currently, the Chiba Prefecture Police Headquarters is investigating the case. If there is any new progress, this station will report it as soon as possible!"

　A new major case is about to begin
　　
　
(End of this chapter)