I created a foundation

Cause of death: dismemberment.

The technique is exactly the same.

This is no longer a coincidence; it is a blatant provocation and a trampling on the dignity of the entire Metropolitan Police Department.

"Takagi!" Inspector Megure's voice was hoarse, but it carried unquestionable authority. "Are you sure they are exactly the same?!"

Takagi Shigeru nodded vigorously, his lips still trembling. "That's what my colleagues at the Shibuya precinct said. They're cordoning off the scene, and their initial assessment is that it's the same killer as the Minato Ward incident, or rather... the same type of entity."

He spoke the last sentence very softly, but it made the chill in the air even thicker.

Miwako Sato frowned and her eyes were serious.

Chiba and Shiratori exchanged a frightened look, and the knuckles of their fingers holding the pen turned white.

"Contact the Shibuya precinct immediately!" Inspector Megure roared, trying to dispel the ominous premonition in his heart with his volume. "I want to know every detail! Everything!"

He turned around abruptly, his eyes sweeping over the photos of the missing persons on the whiteboard, as well as the cooperative investigation notice with the name "Tomie Kawakami" written on it, which had just been faxed from Osaka.

These seemingly isolated cases, like scattered pearls, are slowly being linked together by a bloody clue.

And that clue seemed to be pointing to a name that was becoming clearer and clearer, yet more and more bizarre.

At this moment, the office door was pushed open again.

A young patrolman was even more flustered than the previous patrolman who reported the case in the port area. He was tightly clutching several documents in his hands, his forehead and nose were covered with sweat, and the collar of his police uniform was crooked.

"Inspector Megure!" He rushed in front of Megure, and because he ran so fast, his voice was like a broken bellows. "Major...major discovery!"

Everyone's eyes were fixed on him.

At this moment shrouded in despair and blood, any "discovery" could mean a turning point.

The young inspector took a few deep breaths, trying to calm his chest which was heaving violently. He spread out the document in his hand and pointed at a line of words. His voice was a little distorted due to his excitement.

"I... I checked the detailed information of all the missing persons and confirmed dismemberment victims, including their social networks, call records, and spending records..."

His eyes gleamed with excitement, as if he saw a ray of light in the darkness.

"I found a common denominator! A common denominator among all the victims!"

Inspector Megure's heart skipped a beat and he almost held his breath.

"Say!"

"They, all these missing or murdered men, had close contact with a young woman named Kawakami Tomie for a period of time before the incident!"

Tomie Kawakami!

This name was like a bolt of lightning, splitting the fog in Inspector Megure's mind.

According to the Osaka Prefectural Police's joint investigation report, the woman who had close contact with the missing man was also named Tomie Kawakami.

Is it...

"Investigate!" Inspector Megure's spirits suddenly perked up, as if a drowning man had grabbed a life-saving straw. He snatched the documents from the young inspector's hand and ordered sternly, "Investigate this Kawakami Tomie! I want all her information! All of it! Immediately retrieve all the surveillance videos related to her! Every surveillance camera that can be found in Tokyo!"

The police officers sprang into action immediately, like a wound-up machine.

The sounds of telephones, keyboards, and printers intertwined into a tense symphony in the depressing office.

The First Investigation Division, the most elite department of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, showed amazing efficiency at this moment.

Scattered information about "Tomie Kawakami" was compiled.

The household registration information is unclear and seems to have been moved and changed many times.

The social web is complex, but it all points to the men who are missing or murdered.

However, when the first batch of surveillance videos were retrieved and played on the big screen in the conference room, the glimmer of hope that had just been ignited was instantly poured with a basin of cold water, and was replaced by deeper confusion and a kind of... almost absurd fear.

On the screen, the figure of a young woman appeared.

She was incredibly beautiful, almost unreal, with long jet-black hair, fair skin, a small teardrop mole under her eye, and a faint, unpredictable smile always lingering at the corner of her mouth.

"This is... the surveillance footage from the entrance to Kabukicho Ichibangai in Shinjuku at 8:03 PM on Monday," the technical officer reported. "The target, Tomie Kawakami, and a man in his forties in a suit entered the Nightingale Hotel."

The picture is clear and the time is accurate.

The man in a suit was the section chief of a company who was reported missing three days ago.

"Very good!" Inspector Megure nodded slightly and clenched his fists unconsciously.

The breakthrough seems to be just around the corner.

"Inspector..." The technical officer's voice was hesitant and confused. "Please look at this."

Screen switching.

The same "Tomie Kawakami", exactly the same appearance, exactly the same clothes, even the curve of the hair ends is exactly the same.

She was holding the arm of a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, and the two of them were snuggling intimately as they walked into a love hotel located in a residential area in Setagaya Ward.

The timestamp in the lower right corner of the screen clearly displayed - 8:05 pm on Monday.

The entrance surveillance of this love hotel is more than 20 kilometers away from the Shinjuku "Nightingale" Hotel.

"Wait a minute!" Takagi Shigeru cried out, "The time... the time is almost synchronized!"

There was an uproar in the conference room.

How can it be?

How could it be possible for a person to appear in two different locations twenty kilometers apart at almost the same time?

"Could it be that the recording time is wrong?" Sato Miwako asked, but her tone was also full of uncertainty.

"We've double-checked." The technical officer smiled wryly and shook his head. "All surveillance equipment is calibrated to the second. Furthermore, to rule out coincidence, we retrieved all relevant surveillance footage from the two locations within the ten minutes before and after. The movements of the two Kawakami Tomie are consistent, without any flaws."

That is to say, at around 8 o'clock on Monday evening, two women who looked exactly the same and were named "Tomie Kawakami" were in two different corners of Tokyo, with different men.

Inspector Megure stared at the two identical faces with strange smiles on the screen, and felt a chill rushing from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

"Keep going!" he said through gritted teeth.

More surveillance footage was retrieved.

At 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, at the door of a gallery in Kichijoji, surveillance cameras captured "Tomie Kawakami" holding the arm of a middle-aged painter, and the two walked in, talking and laughing.

At almost the same time, at 2:17 p.m. on Wednesday, on the deck of a luxury yacht in the port area, surveillance cameras captured the figure of "Tomie Kawakami". She was wearing a sexy bikini, holding champagne, and chatting happily with a well-dressed young wealthy man.

On Friday evening, she was at the upscale 953 restaurant in Ginza.

At the same time, she appeared in the corridor of a civilian apartment building in Ikebukuro.

She partied hard in a Shibuya nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning.

At the same time, she was walking side by side with a man dressed as a monk on the stone steps of a remote shrine.

Each "Tomie Kawakami" comes into contact with different men at different times (sometimes even at the exact same time) and in different places.

Without exception, these men became part of the missing persons list or the dismemberment case file.

Dozens of small windows appeared on the screen, and in each window was the woman named "Tomie Kawakami".

Their appearance, clothing, expressions, and even some subtle movements are surprisingly consistent.

It seems as if there are countless copies of "Tomie Kawakami", like ghosts, spread across every corner of Tokyo, weaving a web of death that devours men.

"This...what is going on?" Qianye's voice was tearful, and he felt that his worldview was collapsing.

"Twins? Triplets? Even...clones?" Shiratori muttered to himself, but he himself knew how pale and powerless these speculations were.

What kind of parents give all their daughters the exact same name?

What kind of cloning technology could be so perfect and penetrate into society so quietly?

Inspector Megure opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but found that his throat was so dry that he couldn't make any sound.

He looked at the faces on the screen with strange smiles, which seemed to mock all their efforts, mock the science and logic that they were proud of.

This has gone beyond the scope of a "case".

This is not a human criminal method at all.

A thought, like a poisonous snake, entered his mind, making him shudder.

This is simply... a supernatural event!

Chapter 79 Report from Undercover

The air inside the police station seemed to freeze.

On dozens of screens, the faces of "Tomie Kawakami" with strange smiles were like invisible spells, making it hard for everyone present to breathe.

"This...this is impossible..."

A junior police officer muttered to himself, his voice filled with disbelief and fear.

"Could it be... some kind of... evil magic?"

"Or some...monster...that we don't know about?"

Whispers spread throughout the oppressive conference room, growing like wild weeds. Fear is contagious, especially when faced with bizarre events that are completely beyond our comprehension.

"enough!"

Inspector Megure slammed the table, making a loud noise that made the water in the teacup spill out.

His eyes were red and the veins on his forehead were exposed, like an enraged lion.

"What nonsense!"

Inspector Megure shouted, spitting out of his mouth: "We are the police! What is the police's duty? To maintain order and protect citizens! Not to be paranoid and engage in feudal superstition!"

His voice was a little hoarse with excitement, but the majesty contained in it made the young police officers lower their heads involuntarily.

"There are no ghosts or gods in this world! All seemingly inexplicable things must have scientific logic behind them! It's just that we haven't found it yet!"

Inspector Megure gasped, trying to calm himself. He knew that the most important thing now was to stabilize the morale of the troops. If even law enforcers like them began to waver, how would ordinary people cope?

"Keep investigating!" He pointed at the "Tomie" characters on the screen. "Even if I have to dig deep into the ground, I'm going to uncover the true identities of these Kawakami Tomie! I don't believe they can just appear and disappear out of thin air!"

The atmosphere in the meeting room brightened slightly thanks to Inspector Megure's words, but the chill that lingered in their hearts remained.