The Big Case

Sirens wailed.

Dark, rainy clouds loomed overhead.

Kita-Senju station exit.

The Metropolitan Police Department, the SAT, and ambulances wove together a tense atmosphere. Rainwater on the ground reflected the flashing blue and red lights. Passersby formed a human wall, whispering and gossiping; some would rather be late than leave, holding umbrellas to watch the spectacle and snap photos for Twitter.

Several reporters stood before the police tape, wearing raincoats and holding microphones as they faced cameras to relay the information they had just gathered.

In the frame, the scene was heavily guarded. Fully armed SAT members and assisting officers held their positions, while medical personnel periodically carried out wailing wounded on stretchers to load them into ambulances.

"Section Chief Noguchi, the perpetrator's information is in."

Inside the subway station, the view was one of utter devastation.

Dropped mobile phones, briefcases, and neckties were scattered everywhere—a scene that made it easy to imagine the scale of the chaos and the panic of the crowd.

In densely populated areas, injuries from trampling usually outnumber those caused directly by an assailant.

Yet, today was an exception; the number of people killed by the murderer exceeded those injured by the stampede.

Noguchi Yuji tore his gaze away from the perpetrator's corpse, which was surrounded by colleagues from the forensics and identification divisions. He took the file and scanned it, but his furrowed brow did not relax; instead, his entire face tightened.

Sato Gafeng, forty-five years old, insurance agent, deputy section chief level, a pushover, married, no children. His social circle was limited to his colleagues. Everyone who knew him described him as a normal office worker; they had never seen him lose his temper. Because of his poor health, he didn't exercise or go to the gym. He was, in every sense, an ordinary person.

"Start by investigating his company and colleagues. See if he's had contact with anyone outside his social circle recently. Also, put his wife under high-priority surveillance."

"Yes!"

Noguchi Yuji took a deep breath and stepped through the open train doors. What met his eyes was a hellish scene of flesh and severed limbs. The stench of blood hit him like a wall. Large amounts of blood were splattered across the carriage windows, walls, and even the ceiling. The blood pooling on the floor looked like a pond, dripping down the edges of the door frame.

Even as the head of the First Investigation Division, who dealt with all kinds of murderers, he suffered a massive visual and psychological shock. He heard that several rookies from the forensics department hadn't been able to handle such a "fresh and hot" scene and had vomited on the spot.

His gaze swept over the severed limbs that had just been painstakingly marked, and he spoke in a low, hoarse voice.

"An ordinary person, huh."

Shiraishi Wataru considered himself an ordinary person.

He didn't think he was the protagonist of this world. Even though he was a transmigrator, the fact that he had transmigrated to Otherworld Tokyo and wasn't a high school student meant he was likely just some background character—the kind with two pages of screen time in a manga or three minutes in an anime.

Perhaps, he didn't even have that.

That was why he had always lived with extreme caution.

He was terrified of doing something out of line and being "punished in the name of the moon" by some random high school student who popped out of nowhere.

Fortunately, the person whose body he had possessed was a NEET.

He had almost no social circle and often relied on his older brother for financial support.

Unfortunately, the memories of this person contained nothing of value.

Moreover, the memos were filled with various versions of a suicide note, as if he were certain he would die suddenly or take his own life.

Overall, there wasn't much to describe. It could be summed up in one sentence: a recluse who had lost the courage to face interpersonal relationships and communication.

His brother was frustrated by his lack of ambition, but he had long since lost the energy to lecture him. However, the last remnants of familial affection meant he still paid for his brother's utilities and internet every month. He had even left the house inherited from their parents to his younger brother, choosing to rent an apartment near his own workplace instead.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a "good brother of Tokyo"; he had fully lived up to the role.

His simple social life allowed Shiraishi Wataru to replace him without a sound.

And he had begun to study his own "superpower."

A superpower that seemed to have appeared because of his transmigration.

Parasitism and Symbiosis.

Every week, he could vomit up a few thumb-sized parasites, depending on his nutritional intake, though there was an upper limit.

Once someone ingested them, he could choose to either parasitize or symbiose with them.

Parasitism was total control, but it was difficult to split his focus between his own body and the host. After parasitizing, he could also use the host to produce new parasites, but strictly speaking, they were just being transferred from his own body, so there was no increase in parasite production based on the number of hosts.

The other option was symbiosis.

The parasite could share his abilities—excluding parasitism—with the host, while simultaneously prompting the host to potentially mutate and feed abilities back to the original owner. It was a mutually beneficial relationship.

But as mentioned before, Shiraishi Wataru was cautious by nature, so even his experiments were limited to small animals like mice, cats, and crows. He hadn't even used a dog; after all, he couldn't find stray dogs, and buying one suddenly would be suspicious and expensive.

In the nearly one year since his transmigration, he hadn't dared to target a human. It wasn't because of high moral standards, but simply out of fear of Tokyo's ordinary high school students.

The information he had gathered about this world showed it wasn't his original world at all; the technology was more advanced, and he worried this was the setting of some novel or anime. Beneath the calm surface of Tokyo lurked countless extraordinary people with diverse abilities and heaven-defying means, as well as green but lucky student protagonists.

His "cheat," which required others to swallow bugs to work, couldn't compare to those monsters.

This situation continued until two months ago.

One of the stray cats he had symbiosed with was captured by a group of children and tortured.

Burned with fire, whipped, and pelted with stones.

Amidst the pain and laughter, the cat mutated.

[Super Strength] [Steel Body]

The ordinary tabby cat broke free from the tight ropes and, amidst the screams, clawed a child with every swipe, tearing away strips of flesh and leaving deep, bone-exposed wounds.

Even clothing could not block the sharp cat claws; it was as fragile as paper against a samurai sword.

The children cried for their parents and scattered in every direction, but the cat only chased down one of them—the child with the most vicious methods.

He had used a tree branch to poke out one of its eyes, and in return, it used its claws to take one of his eyeballs. Then, in full view of everyone, it leaped with impossible height and vanished from the witnesses' sight, leaving behind only a child wailing in agony. Eventually, the incident even made the news.

No one ever saw that cat again, or perhaps there were simply too many similar cats. Under pressure, the relevant departments could only perform a symbolic roundup and euthanize a batch, which in turn angered many animal rights activists. They surrounded the shelter to protest every day, even disrupting the intake and euthanasia process for stray dogs.

Shiraishi Wataru received the feedback from the symbiosis for the first time. This feedback was not a simple calculation of increased strength, but rather an adjustment based on the user's physical condition.

He tested it out; he could lift an ordinary car, something weighing a little over a ton.

For a human, it was truly a Super Strength worthy of the name.

This ability also complemented his Steel Body perfectly. After all, force is reciprocal; if you have the power to smash concrete with a single punch, your own bones would likely shatter as well.

Steel Body increased the density of his skin, bones, and muscles, boosting his physical defense and preventing the scenario of "killing a thousand enemies while losing a thousand of your own."

With these two abilities, Shiraishi Wataru finally began to act a little more boldly.

He cast his gaze toward a certain special company he had learned about over the past year.

"I am just an ordinary housewife. I couldn't reach my husband tonight, and after seeing the accident on the news, I thought I should come to the police station. I don't understand why you are asking me these irrelevant questions. Has something happened to my husband? Can I see him? Please, let me see him for just a moment! I beg you—"

The two officers in charge of the inquiry exchanged a glance.

Standing behind the one-way mirror of the interrogation room was Noguchi Yuji, whom Shiraishi had seen at the subway station that morning. As the chief of the Criminal Investigation Division 1, he was in charge of this case, which was of such a heinous nature that even the Public Security Department did not want to fight for primary control, settling instead for a nominal Joint Investigation Department. The lead authority fell directly onto him.

As the wife of the perpetrator, Mrs. Sato had been placed under surveillance by his team immediately, in hopes of uncovering some information. However, her behavioral logic was indeed that of an ordinary housewife.

She had done some housework at home, cooked, eaten, taken a nap, practiced some dynamic dancing along with a TV channel after waking up, went grocery shopping around four or five o'clock, and started making dinner at five-thirty. When her husband hadn't returned by the time she finished, she called to check on him, and when she couldn't get through, she called his colleagues and the company.

Those people did not know that Sato Gafeng was the perpetrator of the subway attack that had shocked the nation; they only informed the wife that officers had been collecting information on Sato Gafeng that day.

Consequently, the anxious wife hurried to the nearest police station to inquire about the situation.

The officers monitoring her had no choice but to report to their chief, leading to her being brought to the Metropolitan Police Department, which resulted in the current inquiry.

Noguchi Yuji picked up the special analysis report on Mrs. Sato that had just been printed, the paper still warm.

[Habit of participating in activities for a certain company; bank statements show fixed amounts regularly transferred to a specific account, suspected to be a donation.]

[History of suicide attempts; left leg had slight mobility issues. Neighbors and employees of shops she frequented confirm this behavior persisted until the day before yesterday. However, starting yesterday, June 5th, it appears the left leg is no longer impaired. She exhibited running motions when arriving at the police station, and the monitoring officers reported her movement as normal, with no signs of difficulty.]

[History of miscarriage; medical records indicate she is unable to conceive again. Her participation in company activities began after this event.]

[Left home on the morning of June 5th, suspected to have attended a company group activity. Destination was near Kita-Ayase; specific location and associated group remain unclear.]

[Analysis Point 1: Mrs. Sato was unable to conceive due to a miscarriage, leading to suicidal ideation. She failed, but suffered a leg injury, and was eventually targeted by a certain company and brought in as a member.]

[Analysis Point 2: Attended a company activity on June 5th. That afternoon, while grocery shopping, a familiar employee noticed her leg was no longer impaired. That night, Sato Gafeng returned home for dinner. On the morning of June 6th, the bizarre tragedy occurred. There must be a connection.]

[Analysis Point 3: The bond between the Sato couple is extremely deep. It is recommended not to reveal that Sato Gafeng is dead. Under the pretext of helping her husband, thoroughly investigate where she went on June 5th, which company activity she attended, where their headquarters is, what strange things happened, what exchanges she had with her husband that night, and how her leg improved.]

[Analysis Point 4: As a precaution, it is recommended to deploy a tactical team on standby.]

"Tell her that her husband is currently a major suspect and cannot see her yet. She needs to cooperate with the inquiry now. If her husband is innocent, this is the only way to help him clear his name as quickly as possible."

The male officer received the instructions from his superior through his earpiece. He spoke in a gentle tone: "Mrs. Sato, your husband is currently a suspect in a case. I believe you also want him to clear his name as soon as possible. Therefore, you should cooperate with our questioning and answer our questions truthfully; that is the only way to help your husband."

Mrs. Sato's face turned pale. She tugged at the corner of her clothes with both hands, lowered her head for a long moment, and finally replied, "Please, continue with the questions."