I created a foundation

The next morning, the sun rose as usual.

Kentaro Saeki didn't show up at his office. His secretary called his personal phone, but no one answered.

On the third day, he still didn't show up.

His family began to feel uneasy. They knew that although Saeki might indulge himself occasionally, he would never be out of contact for such a long time without any reason.

A week later.

At the anxious urging of Kentaro Saeki's family, the police obtained a search warrant.

Two uniformed police officers, accompanied by a locksmith, arrived at the door of Saeki's home in a high-end apartment.

The locksmith operated the tool skillfully, and the door lock made a series of tiny metal friction sounds.

"Click."

The door opened.

An indescribable, strange smell, a mixture of decay and sweetness, wafted out from the crack of the door, causing the police officer standing at the door to subconsciously frown.

The apartment was in a mess, the high-end furniture was tilted to one side and the expensive carpet was stained with large dark brown stains, as if some liquid had been spilled and solidified.

The room was empty.

A young police officer put on gloves and walked carefully into the apartment, while an older officer stayed at the door, observing his surroundings vigilantly.

"Bathroom!" The young police officer's voice suddenly came from deep within the apartment, with a hint of suppressed horror.

The older police officer rushed in immediately.

The bathroom door was ajar, and the strange smell in the air became even stronger and more pungent.

The young police officer was standing at the shower door, his face pale and his body trembling slightly.

The older officer followed his gaze.

The floor of the shower room was covered with dark red blood.

The small sewer outlet, which should have been unobstructed, was now completely blocked by a sticky, pink mass of minced meat that looked like it had been repeatedly cut and chopped by some sharp weapon.

The original shape of that mass of thing could no longer be seen.

It just stood there, silently reminding us of the unimaginable horrors that had occurred here.

Chapter 77 The Metropolitan Police Department's Troubles

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, First Investigation Division.

The air was thick with the indissoluble smell of cigarette smoke, blending with the bitter aroma of cheap instant coffee to create a suffocating, oppressive atmosphere. Desks were piled with messy documents, half-eaten lunch boxes, and overturned ashtrays. The faces of the police officers at each desk were clearly fatigued and anxious.

Inspector Megure Juzo stood in front of a huge whiteboard, his brows furrowed into a frown.

The whiteboard was densely covered with photos, all of them adult men who had recently disappeared. Their ages, occupations, and social status varied: corporate executives in suits and ties, manual laborers in work clothes, and even a few ragged homeless people. Their only commonality was that they had vanished without a trace on a seemingly ordinary day, as if evaporating from the face of the earth.

"What's going on? Any progress?" Inspector Megure's voice was a little hoarse, which was the result of staying up late and smoking a lot.

The office was silent, with only the sound of keyboards and the occasional ringing of the phone.

Officer Takagi Shigeru rubbed his bloodshot eyes, looked up from a pile of investigative reports, and said in a dry voice, "Inspector, it's the same old story. We've checked the last movements of all the missing persons before they disappeared, and there's nothing unusual. We've also checked the surveillance footage repeatedly. It's like they walked into an invisible black hole and suddenly disappeared. There's no trace of any clues left."

Officer Sato Miwako put down her phone and added gravely, "I just spoke to several families of the missing, and they're all very emotional. The media is also keeping a close eye on the case. Today's morning papers are already questioning our police's ability to handle the case."

Inspector Megure sighed heavily and picked up the cigarette on the table, only to find that the cigarette box was empty. He squeezed the empty cigarette box in frustration and threw it into the almost overflowing trash can.

"Damn it, what the hell is going on!" he cursed under his breath.

These disappearances have been going on for nearly a month.

Initially, there were only one or two isolated cases that attracted little attention. However, as time went on, the number of missing persons snowballed, and all of them were male adults, concentrated in the Tokyo area.

The Metropolitan Police Department dedicated a significant amount of manpower to the investigation. The officers of the First Investigation Division worked almost non-stop, sleeping less than four hours a night. They investigated every possible possibility: revenge killing? A murder of passion? Kidnapping for ransom? A gang fight?

But all the speculations were denied one by one due to lack of evidence.

The missing persons had no common social connections, nor any logical motive. Even more bizarrely, no signs of a struggle were found at the scene, and no witnesses provided any valuable clues.

It was as if these living people were silently wiped out from this world by an invisible hand.

"What about the technical department? Have they made any new discoveries about the missing person's last call records and online activities?" Inspector Megure looked at Officer Chiba who was working hard in the corner.

Chiba Kazunobu pushed his glasses up on his nose and shook his head helplessly. "Inspector, we've analyzed all the data, and the results are the same as before: nothing suspicious. The communications of the missing persons before their disappearance were all normal, and the websites they visited were all regular ones. There's no sign of anything happening."

"Could it be some new type of criminal method? One that utilizes high-tech means that we haven't mastered yet?" Inspector Shiratori Nisaburo pondered. He has always been sensitive to this type of high-IQ crime.

"If that's true, then their anti-reconnaissance capabilities are truly formidable," Takagi said with a wry smile. "We've checked all public and private surveillance cameras around the crime scene, even using satellite imagery for comparison, and haven't found any suspicious people or vehicles entering or leaving. This is simply... like a ghost."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Inspector Megure interrupted him harshly, "We are police officers, we must believe in science! There are no ghosts or gods in the world, only criminals that we haven't found any clues to yet!"

Despite saying this, Inspector Megure's heart was shrouded in an unprecedented gloom.

He has been a police officer for decades and has handled all kinds of bizarre cases, but he has never encountered a situation like this one, which made him feel helpless and even a little creepy.

The office door was flung open and a young inspector rushed in in a panic. He almost tripped over the threshold because he ran so fast.

"Inspector Megure! It's bad! Something...something happened again!" The inspector was out of breath, with beads of sweat on his forehead.

The eyes of everyone in the search section were instantly focused on him.

Inspector Megure's heart sank, and an ominous premonition came over him: "Tell me slowly, what happened?"

"We just received a report that a man's body was found in...an abandoned warehouse in the harbor!" The young inspector swallowed, a look of shock on his face. "And...and the cause of death was extremely gruesome. It's almost identical to the unidentified dismemberment cases we handled before!"

"What?!" Inspector Megure's pupils suddenly contracted.

The so-called "unidentified dismembered bodies" were another difficult category of cases that emerged around the same time as these missing men. The victims were also men, but unlike those who had simply vanished from the face of the earth, these victims were invariably found brutally dismembered, their body parts scattered across the city, making identification impossible.

Because the bodies were handled too thoroughly, the police have not been able to find a direct link between these dismemberment cases and the disappearances.

But now, the words of this young inspector seemed to connect these two seemingly isolated cases with a bloody thread.

"What's the situation at the scene? What's the preliminary estimate of the time of death?" Sato Miwako asked immediately.

"The forensic doctor and forensic investigators have already arrived," the young inspector said, trying to calm his breathing. "According to the patrol officer who first discovered the body, the body... the body looks like it's been gnawed by a wild animal. There are irregular lacerations everywhere, and... and most of the internal organs are missing."

The office fell into dead silence, and the air seemed to be frozen.

The police officers looked at each other and could see deep shock and confusion in each other's eyes.

If the previous disappearances were merely bizarre, then this newly discovered body with a horrific death, and its connection to the previous dismemberment case, have given the entire incident an even darker and bloodier tone.

This has gone beyond the scope of an ordinary criminal case.

That's not the kind of atrocity humans can commit.

Inspector Megure clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms... He could feel a cold chill spreading upwards from his spine little by little.

He forced himself to calm down. As the head of the Investigation Division, he couldn't panic.

"Takagi, Sato, follow me to the scene immediately!" Inspector Megure ordered decisively, "Chiba, Shiratori, continue to follow up on the missing persons' clues and see if you can find someone who matches the characteristics of this new body from the missing persons list!"

"Yes!" The police officers responded in unison. The originally depressing office was filled with a tense and solemn atmosphere because of this sudden vicious case.

Just as Inspector Megure was about to leave, the office door was pushed open again. This time, a female police officer in charge of clerical work came in. She was holding a fax document in her hand and had a strange look on her face.

"Inspector Megure, this is the joint investigation notice that just came over by fax from Osaka Prefectural Police Headquarters." The policewoman handed over the document. "They've also recently had a very bizarre case..."

Inspector Megure took the document and quickly looked through it.

The document records the disappearance of an Osaka man in Tokyo a month ago, which roughly coincides with the first batch of missing persons in Tokyo. Before his disappearance, the last person he had contact with was a young woman named "Tomie Kawakami."

"Tomie Kawakami?" Inspector Megure frowned. He had some familiarity with the name. It seemed a similar female name had appeared sporadically in some previous missing persons case files, but without direct evidence, it hadn't drawn much attention.

"Yes," the policewoman nodded. "When the Osaka police were investigating this man's social relationships, they discovered that he had recently been in close contact with a certain Tomie Kawakami. But strangely, according to the information provided by the Osaka police, the descriptions of Tomie Kawakami given by different witnesses actually vary slightly. Moreover, she seems to have appeared in multiple locations at the same time, as if... as if there were several Tomie Kawakami."

Are there several "Tomie Kawakami"?

Inspector Megure's heart skipped a beat. This description evoked an indescribable strangeness.

He subconsciously looked up at the photos of the missing men on the whiteboard.

Could it be that these seemingly unrelated disappearances and brutal dismemberment cases are all related to this mysterious "Tomie Kawakami"?

If this is true, then who exactly is this "Tomie"? Or rather... what "thing" is she?

A chill ran up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

Just then, the office phone rang sharply, breaking the brief silence.

Takagi Wataru, who was closest to the phone, answered it: "Hello, this is the Investigation Division 1... What?!"

Takagi Shigeru's face turned pale in an instant, and the hand holding the phone began to tremble slightly.

"Takagi, what's wrong?" Inspector Megure's ominous premonition became stronger and stronger.

Takagi Wataru put down the phone, his voice trembling with disbelief, and looked at Inspector Megure: "Inspector... I just received an emergency report from Shibuya Police Station..."

His lips trembled, as if the next words were of great weight.

"Another dismemberment case was found in a love hotel room in Shibuya!"

"It's the same as the one at the warehouse in the port area! The victim is also a male! The body... the body was chopped into thousands of pieces!"

Chapter 78 The Non-Existent Suspect

Thousands of dollars.

Takagi Wataru's voice was distorted by extreme fear, as if his throat was strangled by an invisible hand.

There was deathly silence in the office.

You can hear a pin drop.

Every word was like a heavy hammer, hitting the hearts of all the police officers in the search section.

Inspector Megure's burly body shook violently, and the blood color on his face instantly faded, leaving only a terrifying paleness.

The bloody scene in the abandoned warehouse in Minato Ward had not yet faded from our minds when equally brutal news came from a love hotel in Shibuya.

Victim, male.