"He loved his own sister?" Inspector Matsumoto's brow furrowed into a tight knot. "The guy is a complete degenerate?"
Hayashi Shuichi nodded, his gaze lingering on the serene-looking head.
Within the formalin solution, Ogasawara Mari's features remained lifelike, as if she were merely caught in a deep slumber.
"If this is Ogasawara Mari's head, then what about the one we found at the convenience store?" Matsumoto asked, his confusion deepening. "Whose head was that?"
"Two days ago, Ogasawara Yuto attended a funeral," Hayashi Shuichi deduced. "The deceased was a high school classmate of his—also a young woman. He likely found a way to steal her head, disfigured it with acid, and then placed it in the convenience store to be discovered."
"But what was his motive for doing that?" Matsumoto's eyes widened.
"It was probably because President Okawa called the police," Hayashi Shuichi said thoughtfully. "Ogasawara wanted to wrap up his sister's case with the police as quickly as possible."
"But if that was his goal, couldn't he have just dumped Mari's actual body?" Matsumoto frowned. "Why go through all this trouble?"
"I believe he wanted to keep his sister's head for himself," Hayashi Shuichi's eyes drifted back to the glass jar. "A body without a head would force the police to keep searching for the missing piece. By using the head of his deceased classmate to impersonate his sister, he ensured the police would stop looking. Furthermore, he could use the existing injuries on his sister's torso to frame President Okawa."
"This guy is truly..." Matsumoto shook his head, his expression a complex mask of disgust and disbelief.
Hayashi Shuichi was about to instruct the officers to take the jar containing the head away when two sharp gasps erupted from the doorway.
He turned his head sharply to see Eri Kisaki standing there, her face deathly pale, peeking into the shop. Below her, Reiko was also trying to poke her head in, though Eri was firmly covering the girl's eyes despite her frantic struggling.
"Eri-姉! Why won't you let me see? Move your hand!" Reiko's voice was filled with a mix of indignation and burning curiosity.
Hayashi Shuichi quickly moved his body to shield the glass jar, looking at the two of them with a helpless sigh. "Didn't I tell you both to stay outside? Why are you peeking?"
"Curiosity..." Eri replied in a small, hushed voice. "I never imagined that Ogasawara Mari's head would actually be here."
"What? Another head?" Reiko struggled even harder. "Let go! I want to see too!"
Only after Inspector Matsumoto took off his suit jacket and carefully wrapped it around the glass jar did Hayashi Shuichi breathe a sigh of relief. He signaled Eri that she could finally release Reiko.
"Eh? Why did you wrap it up?" Reiko pouted, her eyes darting around as she tried to catch a glimpse of the hidden object. "Let me see it, Onii-chan!"
"Stop fooling around," Hayashi Shuichi said, reaching out to ruffle his sister's hair. "There's nothing 'good' about seeing a dead person's head. Come on, we need to get back to the Metropolitan Police Department."
He turned to Eri, intending to ask her to take Reiko back to the tavern, but then he remembered the girl was the one who had discovered the first head at the convenience store. She would eventually have to go to the station to give a formal statement anyway, so he swallowed his words.
On the way back to the station, Reiko continued to lament missing out on seeing the head.
Eri's face, however, remained grim throughout the ride. Seeing two severed heads in a single day had clearly dealt a significant blow to her psyche.
"What is there to see?" Hayashi Shuichi said crossly to his little cousin. "If you actually saw it, you'd be too scared to sleep tonight."
The little girl glanced at Inspector Matsumoto in the front seat, then suddenly grabbed her brother's arm, leaning into his ear to whisper coquettishly, "As long as Onii-chan holds me while I sleep, I won't be afraid of anything."
"You..." Hayashi Shuichi pinched her cheek helplessly.
Inspector Matsumoto was focused on driving and didn't notice the whispering in the back seat.
Eri, however, heard every word. She shot Reiko an annoyed glare before turning the conversation back to the investigation.
Hayashi Shuichi then repeated his theories to her.
"A classmate's head?" Eri asked in surprise. "Aren't most people cremated nowadays? How did he get his hands on it?"
"Likely by bribing a crematorium worker," Hayashi Shuichi speculated. "After the family sees the deceased for the last time, but before the body enters the furnace, they sever the head."
"Would someone really do that?" Eri clenched her fists in anger. "Respect for the dead is paramount. That's so incredibly disrespectful."
"Using the dead to turn a profit has always been a side-business for some funeral homes and crematoriums," Hayashi Shuichi said, long since accustomed to such grim realities. "If the deceased had gold teeth or jewelry, as long as the family doesn't mention it, workers will often pull them out to keep for themselves."
"I've heard similar rumors," Matsumoto added, nodding. "They say there are even people who traffic entire corpses for money."
"Traffic corpses?" Reiko's eyes widened. "People actually buy dead bodies?"
"Once a body is bought, some are used for medical research—dissections, specimens, and the like," Hayashi Shuichi explained casually. "Others are used for 'Ghost Marriages'."
"Ghost Marriages?" Reiko blinked, looking utterly perplexed. "Dead people can get married?"
"Some superstitious people believe that after death, one continues to live in the underworld," Hayashi Shuichi said patiently. "To ensure their deceased loved ones aren't lonely, they hold a wedding for them in the afterlife."
The Metropolitan Police Department.
Upon seeing his sister's head being brought back by Hayashi Shuichi and the others, Ogasawara Yuto's reaction was violently explosive.
His eyes turned bloodshot, the veins on his face bulged, and he roared as he tried to lung for the glass jar. "Give Sister back to me!"
Inspector Matsumoto was well-prepared. With a clean shoulder throw, he slammed Ogasawara Yuto heavily onto the floor.
With a dull thud, Yuto's body made intimate contact with the hardwood. Yet, he seemed oblivious to the pain, struggling desperately to crawl back up.
"Sister! Give her back to me!"
Yuto's voice was hoarse and filled with despair, his face a mess of tears and mucus.
President Okawa stood to the side, his face as white as parchment. He stared at the head within the glass jar, his lips trembling uncontrollably. "This... this is Mari? But... wasn't her face disfigured? What is going on?"
"You'll have to ask Mr. Ogasawara that," Hayashi Shuichi said coldly, looking down at the man pinned to the floor. "It's come to this. Will you confess on your own, or shall I explain it for you?"
The office of the First Investigation Division fell into a brief, heavy silence, broken only by Ogasawara Yuto's ragged, heavy breathing.
After a long while, he finally spoke, his voice so raspy it was barely recognizable.
"I'll confess... but you have to give Sister back to me."
(End of Chapter)
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