21st Century Necromancer

Cradling Xiao Sanmao's ashes as he left the evidence room and returned to UDI's office, Chen Yu found Jounouchi Hiromi chatting with Misumi Meiqin about something—it seemed they were both haranguing someone sitting on the couch.

"Hiromi, what are you two talking about?" Curious about what had united his girlfriend and Misumi Meiqin in common cause, Chen Yu asked Jounouchi Hiromi.

Hearing Chen Yu's voice, Jounouchi Hiromi quickly turned around, and seeing a box in Chen Yu's hands, she asked him, "Mr. Chen Yu, are you done with your work? I'm discussing a case with Dr. Misumi."

"Oh? Dr. Misumi's case? What, Hiromi, are you interested too, wanting to play the Goddess Detective Sherlock?" Chen Yu, perhaps trying to lighten the mood after being affected by the time spent in the evidence room, teasingly joked with her.

"No way! I just think that this case is just like Dr. Misumi said—the real culprit isn't the person the police arrested," Jounouchi Hiromi retorted, and went on to explain to Chen Yu, "I reviewed the evidence Dr. Misumi prepared, and as she said, the wounds and the weapon don't match.

The knives used in the victim's home are all specially made for left-handed people, but the wound was made by a right-handed knife, so the weapon the police found is wrong, and definitely, so is the culprit."

"That's not necessarily true, Hiromi. A mismatch between the weapon and the wounds is indeed a point of doubt, but it doesn't mean that if the weapon is wrong, the culprit must also be wrong," Chen Yu replied after hearing Jounouchi Hiromi's explanation, suddenly intrigued. He set the box aside, sat down, and shared his own opinion, which was different from Jounouchi Hiromi's.

Seeing Chen Yu not agreeing with her, Jounouchi Hiromi's brows furrowed, but she didn't get angry. Instead, she asked, "Then who do you think the culprit is, Mr. Chen Yu?"

"How could I answer you, Hiromi, without knowing the details of the case?" Chen Yu replied with a wry smile, but still started to analyze based on the information he had, as he had already heard the case details from Misumi Meiqin and it wasn't too complex, "The doubt that Dr.

Misumi raised is indeed an important one, yes, but this alone can only prove that the weapon was not the one discovered by the police, not that the suspect is innocent. To prove the suspect's innocence, there must be more conclusive evidence."

"Then what do you think would be more decisive evidence, Doctor Chen?" Misumi Meiqin asked, remembering the detestable demeanor of the prosecutor in court, and had to agree that her point didn't constitute conclusive evidence.

"You've stumped me there. If the victim's body were still around, we could simply conduct another autopsy and find something, but now that the body has been burned to ashes, any evidence would have dissipated as well," Chen Yu said with a sense of helplessness, shaking his head. He certainly couldn't conduct a soul summoning in court and ask the victim to identify the killer, could he?

Even if he could do that, since the person had been dead for more than half a year, whether the soul could be summoned was debatable. After all, modern society lacks the necessary environment for ghosts to thrive. Half a year is enough time for a ghost without strong attachments to vanish completely, leaving nothing behind.

Furthermore, even if a strong attachment allowed a soul to linger, the overwhelming fixation would typically erase all other memories besides the attachment. Even if summoned, it would be nothing more than a grudge spirit.

"There's actually something that was left behind!" Misumi Meiqin, feeling somewhat disheartened by Chen Yu's words, quickly thought of something, "According to our UDI regulations, all bodies that are autopsied by us must have their related evidence preserved for over a year for record retrieval. Therefore, we have retained the muscle tissue from the victim's wound!

Doctor Chen, do you think this could serve as conclusive evidence?"

"How could that kind of thing serve as evidence? You are simply wasting your effort," a man sitting on a sofa, looking very slovenly and even wearing flip-flops, chided Misumi Meiqin before Chen Yu could say anything.

"Trying to refute the possibility of the perpetrator committing the crime by calculating the distance required for the thrust that caused the marks on the spinal bone—such evidence, even if submitted in court, would be easily overturned, and the judge would certainly not accept it."

Hearing this man's words, Chen Yu couldn't help but turn his gaze towards him, sizing him up. He raised his eyebrows curiously and asked, "Who is this?"

"He is a doctor from the Nakado Department, another forensic pathologist from our UDI." Kube Rokuro hurriedly introduced the man to Chen Yu, and also introduced Chen Yu to the Nakado Department: "This is Doctor Chen Yu, a surgeon from the Eastern University Affiliated Hospital, and my good friend. He's here today to..."

"What he's here for is none of my business." The man from the Nakado Department, displaying a 'keep out' demeanor, stood up with a cup of coffee and clomped his way into an adjacent room.

Watching the back of the man from the Nakado Department, Chen Yu couldn't help but shake his head slightly, "He seems to be a man with a story!"

However, that was none of Chen Yu's concern. Even if the man from the Nakado Department was burdened with a sea of blood grudges, it was of no relation to Chen Yu. Instead, it was Misumi Meiqin on the side who fell into a state of distress; she truly had no clue about the decisive evidence that Chen Yu had mentioned.

Seeing Misumi Meiqin's troubled look, Chen Yu also couldn't help but frown as he thought along with her. However, he was ultimately a surgeon, and despite having common professional ground with forensic pathologists, his specialty was different, and he couldn't think of a breakthrough at the moment.

It was Jounouchi Hiromi who seemed to have thought of something, and she asked Misumi Meiqin, "Dr. Misumi, what did the police identify as the murder weapon?"

"It's a custom-made household kitchen knife, why, Doctor Jounouchi, do you have any ideas?" Misumi Meiqin looked towards Jounouchi Hiromi.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Hiromi, you mean the material, right?

If there is nothing wrong with the murder weapon, then the components it's made of must be detectable in the wound; but if the weapon is incorrect, then the components found in the wound will inevitably differ from those of the weapon," Jounouchi Hiromi said, which instantly made Chen Yu realize what she was trying to convey, as he had an epiphany, "Commonly available kitchen knives on the market are mainly divided into three types, ceramic, iron, and stainless steel.

But since you cut out and preserved the tissue from the wound, the material of the scalpel blade would inevitably contaminate the tissue sample, so testing for iron and stainless steel components would not be possible; you should check for silicon content in the sample! This is because both iron and stainless steel knives need to be sharpened."

"And the main material of a whetstone is silicon!" Misumi Meiqin also realized.