Starting With The Sefirah Castle In The Anime World

The wounds on the victim's body were confirmed to have been made by an axe. The incision marks had been compared and verified—basically, the torso was cleaved at the waist.

But even with that conclusion, Megure Juzo's instincts told him that no normal person should possess such strength.

This created a frustrating loop in his thoughts.

The forensic analysis was solid. Seven or eight experts had reviewed the evidence repeatedly before delivering a unanimous conclusion.

As far as the scientific results went, everything had been confirmed with professional rigor.

But the most troubling part of the case wasn't just the wounds on the victims—it was the condition of the murderer.

When the murderer was apprehended, he was still gripping the axe with both hands but had collapsed face-down in an unconscious posture.

The strange part was that there were no signs of physical trauma. That is, the murderer hadn't been knocked out by external force.

This made his unconscious state all the more bizarre.

It was as if someone had instantly switched from combat mode to sleep mode—without any visible cause or injury.

Highly unnatural.

And aside from that, the murderer's physical state was equally strange.

At the time of arrest, the man's muscles had atrophied, and his entire body resembled that of a 60-year-old man. It was shocking.

But after further investigation, it was confirmed that the suspect was only 25 years old. Security footage from a convenience store even showed him entering the forest in a normal, healthy state.

Yet just a few hours later, his body looked like that of an elderly man.

That alone was bizarre to the extreme.

And to make matters more complicated, the four most "normal" people at the scene now seemed suspicious by contrast.

Of course, Megure Juzo understood this was mostly psychological bias.

"Inspector Megure~"

He turned to see a familiar subordinate.

"What's the situation?"

Chiba Kazunobu immediately stood at attention and reported.

"Based on the scene, the murderer split both victims in half and then decapitated them in a single strike. The blood patterns and body positions confirm this. Also, based on body temperature, time of death is within two hours."

"The murder occurred on a forest path. No signs of steel wires in the vicinity. We can basically rule out other murder methods."

"The search team recovered the bag used to store the axe, hidden in the woods. According to the forensic team, the bag is covered with the suspect's fingerprints. It's also confirmed that the axe was prepped in advance by the suspect."

"But aside from clues related to the victims and the suspect, no additional evidence has been found."

"There are some wheel marks—probably from luggage—but no tire tracks."

"Given how remote this place is, few people come here."

Listening to Chiba's report, Megure Juzo's face darkened. He knew that this essentially meant the case was being finalized.

Unlike unclear or ambiguous incidents, this case's facts were crystal clear—so much so that there was almost no room to suspect another culprit.

Despite the many oddities, Megure also understood the real gravity of the situation.

As a veteran officer of the Metropolitan Police Department, he knew some cases couldn't be explained with common sense.

And when that happened, the next step was clear.

"Detective Chiba, you and Takagi stay here."

"Yes, sir."

With that, Megure Juzo walked out of the villa.

Unlike Chiba, who seemed to understand what was happening, Takagi Wataru still looked confused. He had never encountered a case like this before.

"Chiba, what's Inspector Megure doing?"

Considering Takagi had never dealt with a case like this before, Chiba quietly explained:

"There's something unusual about this case. It's beyond our jurisdiction to handle. Higher-ups will have to make the call."

"This case has clear irregularities, and it's not something we can judge ourselves. Just keep your head down and be careful when we're working on cases like this. Don't say anything unnecessary. Got it?"

Takagi Wataru nodded, somewhat confused, but took the advice seriously and memorized it.

"And you remember what I told you last time, right?"

"Yeah…"

At the mention of that topic, Takagi looked embarrassed.

Chiba nodded slightly, but just to be safe, he emphasized again:

"There are at least 80 officers in the whole MPD who like Officer Sato. Inspector Megure is well aware of the internal competition, but he doesn't mind it too much."

"But romance is something for after work. Don't let it interfere with your job. That's what really matters for us detectives."

As a criminal investigator, doing your actual job was the most important thing.

Chiba stressed this because the idiot standing in front of him had already messed up many times, mostly due to carelessness and lack of professionalism.

A lot of it, of course, had to do with Officer Sato.

"There are plenty of people openly chasing Officer Sato in the MPD. Guys like Shiratori have both status and background. What do you have? Aside from being somewhat handsome?"

"…Nothing."

Takagi sighed, looking helpless. He also felt disheartened about his own mediocrity.

He was just a plain old detective—no strong backing, no special qualifications. His only experience came from being a traffic officer. He had practically no field experience with real cases.

By any metric, his credentials were currently bottom-tier.

Chiba was well aware of Takagi's situation. He wasn't trying to hurt his pride—he just wanted him to get real.

"So focus on doing your job. Build up experience. At the very least, try to handle serious cases. Otherwise, you think they'll let you near high-stakes investigations? You'll be stuck tailing me forever."

"Officer Sato is a known career-minded professional in the MPD. She usually works under Inspector Megure. Even though she's not in the professional track, she's already a Deputy Inspector. You think the gap between you two won't grow wider?"

Takagi didn't need to think hard to know the answer.

Of course, it would.

But in this moment, his expression turned serious.

"Don't worry, Chiba. I'll take my job seriously from now on!"

(To be continued.)