The Serial Killing and Eye-Gouging Case / The Powers Behind the Two Gangs

The only thing that Shizuka Sakaki regrets is that she cannot directly use the power of the Eden Artifacts.

However, she didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

After all, the Eden Artifacts' power is so magical that it shouldn't be allowed to be used by outsiders in a casual manner.

It's enough if only Jiang Hang knows how to use this thing.

She's lucky if she can occasionally experience teleportation with Jiang Hang.

Moreover, what truly made her feel a little smug was that she was the first person Jiang Hang had invited to experience this power.

Even the Miyano Sisters, who returned to Tokyo with Jiang Hang last night, didn't seem to have received such treatment.

"After all, it was only delivered last night. Before telling everyone, I have to try it myself first."

"After that, I told other trustworthy people about this," Jiang Hang said, then found the teleportation map at this vantage point and teleported the two of them back to the agency.

"After the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has solved this series of cases, I'll take you guys to experience remote teleportation. After all, the teleportation array in Asahikawa is already ready."

After making this promise with Shizuka Sakaki, Jiang Hang removed their disguises and arrived at the agreed location before the appointed time to meet with Inspector Kiyonaga Matsumoto.

As the superintendent of the Investigation Division One, and also slated to become its future Investigation Division One, Kiyonaga Matsumoto has a close relationship with Jiang Hang.

This case was actually orchestrated by Superintendent Toshiro Odagiri, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department and the direct superior of the Investigation Division One.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Kiyonaga Matsumoto quickly explained the details of the case.

"So far, there have been three victims in this case. We previously believed it was a simple gang fight that led to a revenge killing, and we even arrested a suspect from the gang. However, yesterday, that suspect was released in court due to insufficient evidence."

At this point, Kiyonaga Matsumoto couldn't help but complain to Jiang Hang about the current court system.

As Jiang Hang mentioned before, it was a direct copy of the three-day trial system created to speed up the trial process, based on the worldview of Ace Attorney.

Regardless of the nature of the case, a judgment must be reached within three days after the trial begins.

Even if more evidence is later discovered pointing to him, a person who is acquitted cannot be arrested again on the same charges.

Although the requirements for pre-trial preparations are higher, wrongful convictions still cannot be avoided.

"So, you think that suspect is the criminal, but there was a problem with the Organized Crime Countermeasures Division, which is why the suspect escaped justice during yesterday's trial?"

Jiang Hang asked this question.

Kiyonaga Matsumoto shook his head. "Although the mole incident at the Organized Crime Countermeasures Division caused quite a stir recently, and we now suspect that there are still many moles within their ranks that haven't been uncovered, they probably wouldn't go to such lengths for a mid-level Mafia."

"But this case really feels off to us, which is why we want you to help investigate it behind the scenes."

He seemed a little embarrassed as he said this, "Because of the special nature of the case, and because the countermeasures department has been keeping a close eye on it, our Criminal Investigation Department can only provide some basic assistance."

Of course, this can also be seen as competition between different departments within the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

After all, in theory, murder cases should indeed fall under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Investigation Department, but because the deceased was Mafia, these cases were all taken over by the Countermeasures Department, which is mainly responsible for Mafia affairs.

If the Countermeasures Department had performed well, it would have been fine, but this department kept causing trouble, which also caused the front-line police officers in the Criminal Investigation Department to be criticized by unsuspecting citizens. Naturally, the relationship between the two departments was not very harmonious.

In the past six months, Jiang Hang's character has been so impeccable that his reputation within the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has been practically overflowing.

The fact that this incident has blown up so much, and that the suspect's acquittal has made the truth of the case even more elusive, is why they thought of asking Jiang Hang, the famous detective, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's, or rather, their Criminal Investigation Department's, consultant to help with a covert investigation.

Chapter 606: The Serial Murders and Eye-Gouging Case

Kiyonaga Matsumoto naturally wouldn't make things difficult for Jiang Hang.

He only asked Jiang Hang to help investigate the case secretly. If the countermeasures department caught the real culprit, there would be no need to do anything.

However, if the countermeasures department resorts to any means necessary to increase the case-solving rate and randomly finds a few Mafia to take the blame, then the Criminal Investigation Department will naturally not let the real culprit escape.

It has to be said that Jiang Hang has dealt with quite a few police officers in the past six months. Although most of them are like mascots at crime scenes, only waiting for detectives to solve the case, he occasionally encounters a few corrupt cops.

But at least the police officers who have appeared in Conan are portrayed as positive characters, and power struggles are almost never seen on the Conan set.

Even though this commission seemed like a power struggle between departments, when Kiyonaga Matsumoto said it, Jiang Hang didn't get that feeling.

Because these people, at least in the minds of Inspector Megure Kiyonaga Matsumoto, truly only care about bringing the real criminals to justice.

This is probably why Toshiro Odagiri chose Kiyonaga Matsumoto as the lobbyist.

This kind of thing couldn't be done by him as the head of the Criminal Investigation Department, Inspector Megure, as a police officer working on the front lines of murder cases, couldn't put down his work to pay attention to other cases, so naturally, only Kiyonaga Matsumoto could do it.

"I think I understand what Minister Odagiri means," Jiang Hang nodded. "I learned about this case briefly on the plane yesterday. It is indeed a very suspicious case. At first glance, it does seem like a simple gang feud. But based on my understanding of the current situation in Kamurocho, the gangs in Kamurocho are unlikely to use this method to retaliate."

Over the past six months, Jiang Hang, dressed in an assassin's suit at night and acting as a champion of justice, has dealt with numerous gangs in Kamurocho and Kabukicho.

Moreover, when he was cleaning up the internet some time ago, he also shut down a lot of dark web sites that were connected to Mafia. He still had a lot of dirt on those gangs, but he was too lazy to use these things and had no intention of completely eliminating the Mafia.

These gangs may seem to boast more and more than the others, but in this day and age, the situation of Mafia is no longer as unbridled as it was two or three decades ago.

It's not a big deal to commit murder secretly, but you must dispose of the body properly to avoid being discovered by the police.

If things aren't handled well and the police find out and file a case, then you'll have to find a scapegoat to take the fall for them before trouble comes knocking, in order to prevent the situation from escalating.

This process is common in Mafia around the world. There are also many scenes in the "Young and Dangerous" movies where underlings take the blame and go to jail. Before going to jail, they promise the other party all sorts of benefits so that the other party won't betray them while in prison.

Therefore, given the level of attention the police are paying to this case, if it really was those gangs who did it, they probably already had a scapegoat ready when the first eyeless body was discovered by the police.

As a result, three bodies have been found in a single month, and the police have even arrested a mid-level member of a gang, but had to release him due to insufficient evidence. This situation is quite rare.

Given Japan's current criminal system, even if someone is sentenced to death, the execution can be delayed for more than ten years. As long as the benefits are high enough, someone willing to take the blame can always be found.

Even without the system's notification of a five-star commission, Jiang Hang could sense that this commission was not as simple as it seemed.

So he looked at the case details that Kiyonaga Matsumoto had given him, and thus accepted this rather special commission.

This case currently involves two gangs.

One is the Kyorei Association, which originated in Kansai, and the other is the Tojo Clan, a large Mafia organization with more than 30,000 members at its peak in Kanto.

These two gangs are not actually on the same level; the Kyorei Association is far weaker than the Tojo Clan in terms of strength.

However, the conflict was not actually between the direct branches of the Tojo Clan and the Kyorei Association, but rather between the Tojo Clan's affiliated and collateral branches and the Kyorei Association over territory.

Then, starting at the end of last month, three corpses with their eyes gouged out were found in the alleys of Kamurocho.

After investigation, the police confirmed that the three deceased were all members of the Kyorei Association.

Because the deceased was confirmed to be a gang member, the case was naturally taken over by the Organized Crime Countermeasures Division, and was combined with subsequent cases as part of a serial crime.

For nearly a month afterward, the countermeasures department failed to find the culprit until the third case occurred. In this case, the victim was found to have had a dispute with Hamura Kyohei, the second-in-command (Wakagashira) of the Matsugane Family, a subordinate organization under the Tojo Clan Kyohei Hamura, on the street, and was dragged into a nearby nightclub by the other party.

The next day, the victim's body, with his eyes gouged out, was found in a garbage dump behind the nightclub. The police arrested Kyohei Hamura and believed he was the real culprit in the serial eye-gouging murders.

Throughout this process, Kyohei Hamura remained silent and did not express his opinion.

However, at the start of the trial, the defendant suddenly produced an alibi, proving that he left after reprimanding the victim, which contradicted the time of the victim's death. Faced with this new evidence, the police and prosecutors were completely unprepared, ultimately leading the judge to declare Kyohei Hamura not guilty.

After reading the explanations of these cases, Jiang Hang had a general understanding of the situation.

"I'm all set. We'll talk about the rest after I've investigated the crime scene."

Upon receiving Jiang Hang's reply, Kiyonaga Matsumoto nodded earnestly to Jiang Hang: "Then I'll leave this case to you, Jiang Hang- kun. Please be sure to be careful."

After exchanging pleasantries, the two chatted for a while about other cases the Investigation Division One had encountered that week.

It seems that after he and Conan, those two grim reapers, went out for a few days, there were fewer cases in Beika City than before.

After talking with Kiyonaga Matsumoto and waiting for Kiyonaga Matsumoto to leave, Shizuka Sakaki approached Jiang Hang and asked, "Jiang Hang, do you think this case wasn't Mafia killing?"

She also looked at some case information, but she couldn't find anything wrong with the information.

But it seems that both Kiyonaga Matsumoto and Jiang Hang felt that this case was not so simple.

Especially Kiyonaga Matsumoto's attitude, it was as if he knew there was something fishy about this case.

"Who can say for sure? Just like before I went to Hokkaido this time, I never imagined that a criminal similar to Moriarty Hokkaido be secretly committing various crimes there."

"Kamurocho has been the site of many conspiracies. Perhaps if we follow this lead, we might discover something extraordinary."

"As for Inspector Matsumoto, I think the Criminal Investigation Department probably discovered some other clues, but it's inconvenient for them to come forward," Jiang Hang said confidently, having the system's backing.

After seeing Jiang Hang's attitude, Shizuka Sakaki stopped asking questions and began to organize information about these gangs for Jiang Hang.

Jiang Hang also suggested that Shizuka Sakaki go back first, as there was still a lot of information to be gathered in this case, and it was not appropriate for Shizuka Sakaki to appear because it involved gangs.

After all, a pretty girl like Shizuka Sakaki would probably be bombarded with flirtatious advances just by appearing in Kamurocho and Kabukicho, let alone go looking for gang members to gather information.

For this case, we can just have them gather intelligence remotely from the office.

Moreover, he is going to meet someone later who is not suitable to be seen in public.

Shizuka Sakaki also knows that Jiang Hang has connections with some undercover agents and has recruited them as his informants. Jiang Hang is probably preparing to meet with them to exchange this information.

After all, the police investigation report is one thing, but the information circulating among the Mafia may be another.

Shizuka Sakaki nodded to indicate that it was no problem, and asked Jiang Hang to let her know in advance when he returned so that she could help prepare the meal.

As for Jiang Hang's safety, she had no worries at all.

After all, she herself had experienced the assassins' true strength by immersing herself in their memories.

The sight of Leap of Faith from a rooftop tens or hundreds of meters high unscathed is something no normal human being could do.

Moreover, Jiang Hang has repeatedly demonstrated in real life his ability to dodge bullets and his extremely profound martial arts skills.

In addition, Jiang Hang just showed him today the teleportation ability that originated from the "Eden Artifacts".

Jiang Hang is now almost like a god in Shizuka Sakaki's heart.

She certainly wasn't worried about any accidents happening to a healthy demigod in modern times.

Even if the legendary figure of Kamurocho, "Dragon of Dojima," suddenly appeared, he probably wouldn't pose any threat to Jiang Hang.

After saying goodbye to Shizuka Sakaki, Jiang Hang went directly to Kamurocho.

As he traveled to Kamurocho, he also disguised his identity.

At this moment, Moriya Jun was still idly staring blankly at the erotic magazine in his hand in his original residence.

Although the new gang was also carrying out a lot of criminal activities, a low-level member like him, who had just been transferred from the merged organization, naturally did not have much trust yet, and it was impossible for him to be exposed to those sensitive things.

However, he had long been used to this kind of thing during his nearly 10 years of undercover work.

If one month isn't enough, try six months; if six months isn't enough, try three years.

He has already wasted 10 years of his life here, and he doesn't even know what he could do if he went undercover and returned to his post as a police officer.

However, he himself knew that he was already better off than some undercover police officers who went undercover until their deaths.

His superiors in the police force are now aware of his situation and have not assigned him to investigate the crimes committed by the high-ranking members of the Nisame Association. Instead, they have asked him to keep an eye on the recent conflict between the Kyorei Association and the Tojo Clan, and whether there is any conspiracy behind those serial murders.

He didn't think much about these instructions.

Although the Nisame Association is still nominally the number one gang in Japan, it is currently in the midst of a fierce power struggle due to the sudden death of its direct leader, and other organizations have taken away much of its territory.

Right now, their Nisame Association is in complete disarray internally, so how could he possibly have the mind to inquire about other gangs?

However, there have been quite a few recent serial murder cases, so he did conduct a brief investigation as instructed by his superiors.

The more he investigated, the more he realized that the situation was not as simple as it appeared.

Therefore, when Jiang Hang, who had only communicated with him via text message for several months and had not met him many times, appeared silently in front of him in disguise and asked him about the serial murder case, he couldn't help but show a worried expression.

"Mr. Jiang Hang, I know you have strong personal abilities, but this case is likely to involve a lot of inside stories. If possible, you'd better not get involved in this mess."

Jiang Hang was aware of Moriya Jun's ability to infiltrate as Chen Yongren in Japan. Although he couldn't compare to his colleagues who infiltrated places like the Black Organization, Toru Amuro, this Japan wolf warrior, was clearly beyond the realm of normal humans.

In the realm of normal Mafia agents in the yakuza, Moriya Jun was already considered one of the most outstanding undercover agents.

Jiang Hang shrugged, then sat down on the sofa and looked at the other person. "I really haven't worried about this issue."

"Actually, I was acting under orders this time. Your Organized Crime Countermeasures Division is indeed not clean. You spent a month purging the two moles in the past, and now there are cases of arrested gang members being acquitted in court. It is easy to doubt the department's ability."

Moriya Jun completely ignored Jiang Hang's complaints about the countermeasures department.

These problems have existed since shortly after the establishment of the countermeasures department.

If it weren't for Jiang Hang's intervention last time, his information as an undercover agent would probably have been thoroughly investigated by the undercover agents in the countermeasures department, and his boss, who is still complaining now, might even have been in mortal danger.

"It's a pity I don't have your abilities, otherwise I wouldn't have been stuck as a low-level member in the Mafia for so many years."

Jiang Hang patted Moriya Jun on the shoulder. "You don't need to be discouraged. You've never been just a low-level cadre. Every time you're promoted to a junior cadre or about to be promoted, you've already collected evidence of their crimes and brought them down."

If it weren't for Moriya Jun's high work efficiency, with his abilities, he would have been more than capable of being the second-in-command in the main branch of the Nisame Association.

It can only be said that the countermeasures department is really inhumane, relentlessly exploiting this poor Moriya Jun.

"In short, just relax and share the information you know with me. I can also share some evidence of the crimes committed by the Black Dragon Society you are currently in."

Chapter 607: The Forces Behind the Two Gangs