Chapter 66 Five-pointed Star 1

【Wednesday, April 12】

When Kurosaki Utahi received a call from a familiar detective from the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division, he was at the airport, preparing to board a plane to Hakodate.

"Officer Takagi, didn't I tell you that I can't receive the body these days?"

The person opposite her was a junior whom Date Kou had taught at the Metropolitan Police Department, and she had great respect and trust for him. Date Kou was currently on marital leave, and she had recently attended his wedding.

"Have you forgotten? I have to go to Hakodate to attend a conference, and afterward I need to take a week off. This is to prevent me from being so busy the rest of the year that I forget to apply for paid leave and don't get the legally required five days off. As the end of March neared, the Academic Affairs Office sent me five emails a day urging me to take some time off."

The above "in order to avoid" is her personal experience in the past year.

The voice on the other end of the phone was extremely cautious: "That, that's not the job of a forensic doctor..."

That's what detectives do—Kurosaki Utsuki's mouth twitched, but she still refused: "Then I don't have time. Last time, because I was helping you investigate a robbery, I was forced to finish my thesis right up to the deadline."

And after the rest, she will have to appear in court as a witness to present the autopsy report in the middle of next month, so there is a lot of preparation work to do before that.

By the way, one of the suspect's defense lawyers is her high school classmate Yuji Itadori, whom she has not seen since graduating from high school.

She had dealt with his law firm partner, attorney Hiromi Nishikawa, several times; he was a man of considerable integrity and excellence. Choosing to become a government-sponsored lawyer after graduating from a prestigious university was a bit like choosing a different career path, as she saw it, like Takaaki Morobushi.

The young detective on the other end of the phone tried to struggle again: "Doctor Kurosaki..."

"Stop talking. I must leave Mika immediately, forget all the robberies, kidnappings and murders, and go to the pure land of Hokkaido. The cherry blossoms in Goryokaku Park are calling me."

After saying that, she hung up the phone and turned it off in one go, then strode towards the boarding gate, the hem of her windbreaker fluttering behind her.

Let her have a good rest for a week, adjust her physical and mental state, and when she returns from Hakodate... she will be able to appear in the real world again and meet Kenji Hagiwara, who has arrived as the Shinigami stationed in Beika City.

The last time she went to Soul Society was during the New Year. To relieve stress, she went to the training ground to coach the team member and tested his strength. She felt that he should be qualified to be a garrisoned Shinigami.

As a current Shinigami who graduated from Mao in just three and a half years and is already very outstanding compared to his peers, Hagiwara Kenji not only has steadily increased his strength, but also has very good interpersonal relationships, making him another Captain Ukitake.

If he continued to stay in Soul Society, he would have a good chance of promotion. However, when he was told this, his determination to stay in the human world remained firm.

"Compared to the promotion that can be achieved a hundred years later, it is of course more important to stay with Xiao Gexi now."

She just hoped that despite the high-intensity work environment in Mihua City, he could still spare some free time to spend with her.

April 15, Saturday

...The mission started off badly.

It is a fishing port in Hakodate.

The society has concluded successfully and the next thing is a week-long vacation.

The cherry blossoms in Tokyo have already sprouted tender leaves, but those in Hakodate are just about to reach full bloom.

The night before the trip officially began, Kurosaki Utsuki specifically investigated the various activity arrangements throughout Hakodate to avoid accidentally encountering work - whether as a forensic doctor, detective or death agent.

She knew about the news of Kaito Kidd's deployment yesterday, and there were a lot of news reports. Every time Kaito Kidd deployed, he would occupy a large newspaper page, making him the darling of journalists in the new era.

Unfortunately, she had no interest in the thief, and this thief had a rival in the form of a high school detective who she often tied with, so it would be best for her, a semi-retired detective veteran, to avoid getting involved.

She also knew that there was a high school kendo competition at the Old Hakodate District Public Hall today. As a substitute Shinigami who had participated in several battles with swords and arrows, she had no interest in competitive kendo battles.

But while looking up information, she accidentally noticed that the high school student who was most likely to win the championship was named "Okita Souji" - the same name as the captain of the first team of the Shinsengumi who was quite famous during the late Edo period.

Kurosaki Utsuki likes the Shinsengumi very much, especially Okita Souji. When she was in junior high school, she only focused on Okita's line when she was promoting the "Hakuouki" game. When she read Shiba Ryotaro's novels, she was even more moved by Okita's performance.

But she still had no interest in high school students' kendo battles.

In the end, she decided to head straight for Mount Hakodate, and go to the nearby port in the morning to take a walk, breathe in the fresh air, and think about what kind of seafood to eat for lunch - but she met the local garrisoned Grim Reaper on the way.

…It turned out to be Okita Souji himself.

Moreover, the other party was well aware of her heroic achievements in Soul Society and even recognized her at a glance.

Kurosaki Utsuki's mood was very complicated for a moment.

Of course she was happy. After all, the celebrity who only existed in history books and works of art appeared in front of her in real life and highly praised her achievements. This was a good thing that would add icing on the cake to this vacation.

But the problem is that the other party not only knows her achievements in Soul Society, but also knows her part-time job in the human world - "Detective".

"Although he died recently, his condition is very unstable. To prevent him from becoming a Hollow, I performed a soul burial for him," said the Shinigami, who was only twenty-six years old when he passed away, and whose soul thus retained the appearance of a young man. "But his death was not natural. Since Miss Kurosaki is a detective, I thought she might be interested in exploring the truth behind his death."

She's not interested at all.

However, if she completely ignored Detective Takagi's explanation of the case, like she did a few days ago, she could still refuse with a clear conscience. But once she learned something... it would be difficult for her to pretend nothing had happened.

It's annoying, in every sense of the word.

"...Do you know where his body is?" Kurosaki Utsuki asked desperately.

Okay, let’s start preparing to work overtime.

Souji Okita, whose work is not as busy as Mika's, not only pointed out the direction for Utsuki Kurosaki, but even took her directly to the crime scene.

A body was sitting near a telephone pole on the street not far from the coast. A cross had been cut on its chest by a sharp knife, and the torn parts of its clothing were soaked with blood. Blood was dripping intermittently from not far away on the ground, but there were no signs of dragging. This indicated that the deceased had moved some distance on his own after being injured.

Based on her experience as a forensic pathologist, the initial diagnosis of the cause of death was excessive blood loss, making it the only possible homicide. If she could place the body on the dissection table and examine the wounds up close, she could get a more accurate estimate of the murderer, but for now, she would first...

"Is this... a murder?"

The boy's voice came from behind her, with the heavy Kansai accent that she liked.

In fact, she noticed the boy approaching, but she was rummaging through her bag for the mask and gloves necessary for home travel. She had no time to look back until the boy spoke, then she stopped and took out her mobile phone.

"It seems so... I was about to call the police." Kurosaki Utsuki, who was about to examine the body to confirm the time of death, turned around and was stunned when she saw the high school boy who spoke. "This is not something for children to see. Move away."

Having said that, she vaguely felt that she seemed to have seen this young man with the same skin color as Rei Furuya somewhere, but she just couldn't remember where.

However, when his eyes met hers, the boy was also stunned, and then called out her name: "Hagiwara Utaki?"

…Is she already that famous?

Kurosaki Utsuki responded without replying and called the police. The Shinigami standing by her side received word of the Hollow's presence and left after a slight nod.

By the time she hung up, the high school student beside her had already inspected the body. He didn't dare touch it directly, but when she put away her phone, he asked in a familiar voice, "What did you find?"

Kurosaki Utsuki took a step back and crossed his arms: "Without going on the dissection table, I can't give an accurate conclusion."

This high school student was unusually calm, as if he was used to seeing corpses and murders. Could it be that even though he spoke with a Kansai accent, he was actually a Japanese?

"Oh, by the way, Ms. Hagiwara, you're a forensic doctor." The boy nodded to himself, as if suddenly remembering that she had this role, and then asked, "What if you look at it from a detective's perspective?"

From a detective's perspective, she, as a "psychic detective," needed a ghost to inquire about the situation, preferably the deceased himself who had the clearest understanding of the situation—but unfortunately, this was almost impossible to achieve.

Kurosaki Utsuki said, "Based solely on my intuition, I think this criminal's kendo skills are quite good. There are no defensive wounds on the front of the body, which means that before he could react and defend himself, he had already suffered two cross-shaped wounds."

The boy raised an eyebrow. "How does it compare to your sword skills?"

Kurosaki Utsuki shrugged, "Not even close."

Comparing sword skills with her? You must be kidding. She is already a person who can scare away all the soldiers just by entering the 11th Division's training ground.

No, wait, how did he know she knew kendo? She probably hadn't made it public, only someone inside the police department had heard her mention it... Was he using her words to trick her? Or...

The next moment, the young man took the opportunity to invite him: "Want to fight with me?"

Kurosaki Utsuki refused decisively: "No, my kendo is not about winning or losing in competitions."

Kendo competition—she suddenly remembered the identity of this young man.

"Kansai's Hattori", a well-known high school detective, she had seen his photo in the relevant information of the kendo competition yesterday, and she also thought of the fact that the chief of the Osaka Prefectural Police had a son named Hattori Heiji.

"Honestly, I'm on vacation." Kurosaki Utahi lowered his eyes and looked at the corpse, his eyes still open, sighing uncontrollably. "If you, Hattori-kun, can solve this case right away, I wouldn't mind fighting you."

And I will keep calm and try my best to delay the game for one minute before winning.

But the boy opposite him was puzzled: "Don't you want to solve the truth of the case yourself?"

Kurosaki Utsuki curled her lips.

"As long as we can find out the truth and catch the criminal, it doesn't matter if I am the one who gets the credit."

Originally, she started out as a detective mainly to earn the bounty on unsolved cases. She wasn't that obsessed with being in the spotlight, otherwise she wouldn't have appeared in public wearing a mask in the beginning.

But these words sounded different to the young man. Hattori Heiji nodded thoughtfully: "No wonder Kudo likes you so much."

Kudo... Kudo Shinichi? The "Kudo from Kanto"?

Recalling the apple-headed boy who once vowed to her, "I will definitely become a more famous detective than you," Kurosaki Utsuki smiled, said nothing more, and just turned to look in the direction of the oncoming car.

The police have arrived.

·

An hour later, unable to refuse the local police's request, "The local forensic doctor is on vacation out of town, could you please help examine the body?", Kurosaki Utaki put on a mask with a heavy heart and went to work.

She has to work overtime wherever she goes. She might as well just die and go to Soul Society...