Savior of the Japanese Police

A little while earlier.

"Ran, don't you find it strange?"

Kudo Shinichi jogged behind Ran as he said,

"That Mr. Lin Xinyi was dressed like he was going to work early in the morning. He looked completely different from everyone else."

There were only a few scattered citizens in Riverside Park, out for their early-morning exercise.

Everyone wore loose, comfortable casual clothes suited for working out. Only Lin Xinyi wore a formal black suit, utterly out of place in the setting.

His suit-and-tie outfit was so formal that, with a pair of sunglasses, he could have been hired to carry a coffin.

"It is a little strange."

Ran tilted her head and thought for a moment before suddenly realizing something.

"I know! Mr. Lin Xinyi must be some kind of corporate PR employee."

"I've heard that those PR employees sometimes have to entertain company clients all night before they can get off work. Having their days and nights reversed is perfectly normal."

"And I caught a strong smell of cigarettes on him just now."

"He might have only just gotten off work and was sitting in the nearby park because he was tired."

"That does count as an explanation."

Kudo Shinichi nodded noncommittally.

Ran's guess sounded reasonable, but it could not explain why Lin Xinyi's legs were wet.

What was more, if Lin Xinyi had really spent the entire night entertaining clients, then he should have smelled not only strongly of smoke, but also distinctly of alcohol.

So Ran's speculation was actually rather difficult to support.

"Actually, Ran, if I'm not mistaken—"

Kudo Shinichi was about to reveal the answer he had reached.

But Ran suddenly stopped.

She did not respond to Shinichi at all. Instead, she stared blankly at the river not far away.

"Hey, hey? Ran, did you hear what I said?"

Kudo Shinichi waved a hand in front of Ran's eyes, but her gaze remained vacant, confused, and afraid.

Puzzled, Shinichi followed Ran's line of sight toward the river.

Beneath the dim sky, where the sun had only just begun to peek through, on the calm river where boats came and went—

A patch of crimson was slowly spreading through the water.

The red had already faded somewhat, and the area was not large, but it still stained the rolling waves with a horrifying color.

At last, a ray of rising sunlight fell across the river, clearly revealing the objects floating amid those bloody waves before Shinichi and Ran.

"That's..."

"Legs, arms, and a severed head."

Kudo Shinichi's expression changed slightly.

He had been a high school detective for quite some time, but he had only seen such a horrifying sight a few times.

Looking at the scattered chunks floating on the river, it was obvious: this was an extraordinarily brutal Dismemberment Case!

"Oh no!"

Kudo Shinichi suddenly remembered something.

With one hand, he uselessly covered his own ear, while hurriedly using the other to cover Ran's eyes.

But Ran's piercing high-school-girl scream had already erupted like cola mixed with Mentos.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!"

"There's a body in the water!"

Ten minutes later.

The scene had been sealed off by the police, who had rushed over after receiving the report.

Investigators on the water had also begun using small boats and equipment to recover the body parts floating on the river.

It had to be said that arriving at the crime scene so promptly at an hour when ordinary people had not even woken up yet, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's response time was beyond reproach.

This time, the team was led by a middle-aged officer in a brown suit and brown hat, with a round build and a kind face.

He stood inside the police tape, asking Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran, who had discovered the body, about the case.

From the way Kudo Shinichi addressed him, this stout officer appeared to be Inspector Megure.

Outside the long line of police tape stood a gathered crowd of onlookers drawn in by the commotion.

Lin Xinyi was among them.

Yes, Lin Xinyi, who had just transmigrated here, could not resist coming over to watch the excitement.

Watching a spectacle was a shared hobby of all humanity. He was no exception.

What was more, driven by professional instincts developed in the past, he could not help wanting to take a look at the murder scene.

"The body hasn't been recovered yet, so it's hard to analyze the specifics."

"But since it's a Dismemberment Case, it won't be easy to solve."

Lin Xinyi watched the recovery team on the river from afar, quietly weighing the situation.

The purpose of dismemberment was generally to conceal the victim's identity. Murderers in dismemberment cases usually possessed greater psychological resilience and counter-surveillance abilities than ordinary criminals.

Finding clues among severely damaged body parts that could point to the victim and murderer required advanced autopsy skills and meticulous crime-scene investigation and examination.

And if the murderer also possessed some medical knowledge about concealing traces left on a body, then the autopsy would become even more difficult.

But—

"What does this have to do with me?"

Lin Xinyi, who had unconsciously slipped into overtime mode, suddenly came back to his senses.

"I'm just a passing bystander here for the gossip."

"Japanese cases should be left to the Japanese police."

He wore a relaxed smile that said it had nothing to do with him.

Yet the case itself, especially the body floating in the river, still held his gaze firmly.

Meanwhile, Inspector Megure inside the police tape was also troubled by the case.

"A Dismemberment Case..."

"It's been a long time since we encountered a case this heinous. I'm afraid it won't be easy."

As a veteran Tokyo criminal investigator, Inspector Megure understood the severity of dismemberment cases very well.

The people in this world all seemed to be fans of detective fiction, possessing an extraordinary enthusiasm for criminal cases.

If a Dismemberment Case this brutal and heinous could not be solved, the Japanese police would probably have to bow their heads and apologize to everyone in the news headlines again.

The pressure to solve the case was immense, and Inspector Megure currently had no leads at all.

So he could only habitually turn his inquiring gaze toward the familiar high school detective beside him.

"Brother Kudo, what do you think?"

Kudo Shinichi remained silent, but confidence continued flickering in his eyes.

At the same time, the onlookers outside the police tape had already begun crying out in surprise.

"Kudo Shinichi? It's the famous Kudo Shinichi!"

"Great! It looks like this case will be solved soon."

The crowd erupted into a commotion.

Seeing that scene, anyone unaware of the truth might have thought fans had run into some superstar on the street.

But this was a crime scene. A bloody crime scene.

There was a corpse right beside them, yet they could still be this excited. Weren't these onlookers being a little too carefree?

Lin Xinyi grumbled inwardly.

He had been to so many scenes, yet he had never seen a situation where a crime scene could turn into a fan meeting.

"Just who is this Kudo Shinichi?"

Unable to restrain himself any longer, Lin Xinyi quietly asked the onlookers beside him.

The looks those fervent fans gave him became even more astonished.

"You don't know Kudo Shinichi?"

"Then haven't you heard the title 'Heisei Holmes'?"

"No." Lin Xinyi shook his head.

"No?"

The onlookers were as shocked as if they had heard that someone in the twenty-first century still did not believe the Earth was round.

"No way. Don't you ever read the newspaper?"

"You must have heard of the title 'Savior of the Japanese Police,' right?"

"Huh?" Surprise filled Lin Xinyi's eyes.

As someone in the same profession, even though he did not intend to return to that exhausting and thankless line of work after transmigrating, it was still an ideal he had never regretted.

So he simply could not imagine the word "police" being followed by a title like "savior."

Savior. Savior.

"Just how incompetent are the Japanese police?"

"They actually need a high school student to save them?"

Unable to hold it in, Lin Xinyi blurted out what he was thinking.

The scene instantly grew somewhat quiet.

Especially the police officers busily working inside the police tape.

Every one of them stiffened, their faces looking unpleasant. Their lips twitched slightly, yet none of them could bring themselves to speak.

Lin Xinyi understood that expression. When he was young, his mother had berated him mercilessly over his poor grades, and he had looked exactly the same—

Being scolded was embarrassing and humiliating, but bad was bad. Being bad was the original sin. When people criticized you, all you could do was endure it.

The title Savior of the Japanese Police was an honor when placed on Kudo Shinichi, but a huge scar when placed on the Japanese police.

Those young and hot-blooded officers looked somewhat at a loss because of Lin Xinyi's mockery.

Only Inspector Megure, who had seen all manner of storms, could remain composed.

"Ahem."

"As long as the case gets solved, that's what matters."

"No matter who solves it, uncovering the truth is the duty of us police officers."

Inspector Megure calmly admitted the awkward fact that the Japanese police currently needed outside assistance.

Then, without avoiding the matter at all, he once again turned an imploring gaze toward Kudo Shinichi beside him.

"Inspector Megure."

This famous high school detective finally came back to his senses from his thoughts.

"The body hasn't been brought ashore yet, so it's still difficult to determine the specifics."

"True. Then let's wait a little longer."

Inspector Megure nodded. He had not actually expected Kudo Shinichi to deduce any earth-shattering truth with so few clues.

But just then, Kudo Shinichi abruptly changed the subject.

"However, I've already formed a preliminary deduction regarding the suspect in this case."

"What?"

Inspector Megure was stunned.

Lin Xinyi was stunned as well.

He was identifying a suspect in a Dismemberment Case before even examining the body?

Should he say this kid was uncannily perceptive and monstrously intelligent, or that he was talking nonsense and being arrogantly overconfident?

As a former forensic criminal investigator who believed everything had to be supported by actual evidence, Lin Xinyi leaned toward the latter.

But then Kudo Shinichi dropped another earth-shattering bombshell.

"And that suspect is still at the scene!"

"At the scene?!"

The onlookers were startled too.

They warily looked at one another and moved apart, afraid that the terrifying murderer might be standing right beside them.

Lin Xinyi also found himself quietly anticipating how this apparently formidable Kudo Shinichi would pull the so-called suspect from the crowd.

Then, under his expectant gaze—

Kudo Shinichi struck a handsome pose with one hand in his pocket beneath Ran's unconcealed admiring gaze, while pointing straight at a man in the crowd with the other.

"Mr. Lin Xinyi."

"Please come over and cooperate with our investigation."