24 December 2000, Christmas Eve. Many pedestrians on the streets are buying items to decorate the Christmas tree, which can be seen that they are very keen to celebrate this holiday, and many shops have launched various Christmas promotions in order to compete for business, and strive to attract the attention of consumers.

The gray-haired Mari Akashi is 69 years old this year, and he will enter the threshold of 70 years old this year, not counting numbers and looking forward to growing up like young people, but counting his fingers to calculate how long he will live.

Mari Akashi, who had a weak leg and feet, walked hurriedly with a cane, and her face was full of worry, knowing that her baby daughter had agreed to meet at the gate of the Nakanoshima subway station at nine o'clock in the morning, but now more than two hours have passed without seeing anyone.

What worries her the most is that her mobile phone and the landline at home are not available, and she is worried that something will go wrong, so she has to rush to the house near the subway station with her memory, and she keeps praying in her heart that her baby daughter is just lazy and forgets the agreement.

Mari Akashi came to the door of a house in Nakanoshima 4-chome, and although the iron door was closed, she found that it was not locked after she gently pushed it.

She couldn't help but feel nervous, and out of worry, she had to force the fear in her heart and walk towards the entrance, and after confirming that the front door was locked, she let out a sigh of relief.

It's just that she only relaxed for a moment, because she remembered that her daughter's house had a backyard, and the backyard had a sliding door that led directly to the living room—thinking of this, she raised her vigilance again and took a step, and after seeing the open glass sliding door, the hand holding the cane trembled greatly, and the adrenaline hormone secretion increased at this moment.

"Shhh...... ......"Even though Mari Akashi was nervous, she didn't become ignorant because of her age, so she carefully bypassed those muddy footprints and mustered up the courage to walk towards the house, and the place where she followed the footprints all the way was her daughter's bedroom."

When she smelled the strong smell of blood and her daughter, who was lying naked on her back on the bed, she pulled the fabric into her chest with her trembling hands, trying to hold back her tears, and while taking heavy steps outward, she fumbled for her flip phone to call the police.

"Hello, this is the Osaka Police Headquarters, may I call the police because of the incident or an accident?"

"Yes, it's the incident, my daughter...... Murdered. ”

"Where is the location? How's that going? Mari Akashi knew that this was the basic process for calling the police, but she didn't have the courage to confirm her daughter's life or death, or that as a retired nurse, she could tell what it was like for a human being to die with a degree of anatomy.

She knew that her daughter's appearance was completely in a state of corpse mortisation, so there was no need to confirm it, she just wanted to quickly find out who killed her daughter, and she was worried that the more time passed, the more difficult it would be to detect the case.

"No. 92, 4-chome 10-banji, Nakanoshima-cho, come over quickly...... Please. ”

"Understand that the police have been arranged to go to the scene, please be sure not to let idle people enter the scene of the eucalyptus."

"Okay." Mari Akashi, who hung up the alarm call, caught a glimpse of the big head sticker behind the flip phone, which was taken by her daughter five years ago with her old Zhu Huang herself to the head sticker machine, and after the exaggerated processing of the photo, I really can't see the actual age.

The big head sticker put on the bright smiles of the two people, but the person who looked at the big head sticker couldn't hold back his emotions and covered his eyes with his hands.

The already stiff back is even worse at the moment. - Osaka Police Headquarters. As a police officer, it's normal to still work on daylight days, and there is no Christmas Eve smell in the office or in the cafeteria, but this does not prevent someone from secretly opening a small stove.

It's not a good time to rest during the lunch break without eucalyptus, and Ishibashi, who is the head of the Ishibashi Group of the Search Lesson, carries two large plastic bags and puts down the things in his hand with a smile on his face, and he can know what is inside without guessing, and the strong smell of fried chicken has replaced the nicotine smell in the office.

"Everyone has to go to work Christmas Eve, I bought some Kenji fried chicken, if you want to eat it, come and get it yourself, you're welcome, I bought the whole office!"

"Wow, it's Ken Gi's fried chicken, it's so good that I finally have a Christmas atmosphere, and I don't even have fried chicken nuggets in the cafeteria today, so I'm going to give a bad review."

"yes, yes, do you want a piece of Sakata? I'll bring it for you! The atmosphere in the office of the search class instantly became lively, and Otaki Goro smiled and helped take a box and put it on the table of Takaji Sousuke, seeing that he was still buried in sorting out the file, he said loudly: "Takaji, let's put the work aside first, and eat the fried chicken while it's hot." ”

"Thank you, senior, I'll finish it right away, I'll ...... first" Before he finished speaking, the landline phone on the table made a screeching sound, he put down his hand and quickly connected Chinese pieces, and his brows became more and more frowning because of the content coming from the phone.

Fujiwara Yu hung up the phone and quickly got up, picked up the blazer on the side and put it on his body, and said with a wry smile: "Senior, Nakanoshima has lost its life, and I'm afraid I can only wait for the fried chicken to come back and eat it." ”

"Eucalyptus is important, go!" Ikuji Ishibashi still had fried chicken legs in his mouth, he shook his head helplessly after watching the two leave, and he didn't know if it was his own delusion, he always felt that after this newcomer with strong eucalyptus breaking ability joined the search class, he had more deaths.

He picked up the fried chicken box on Sosuke's table, handed it to his subordinate Sakata Usuke, and ordered, "Usuke, you put this in the refrigerator and wait for them to come back and give it to them to eat." ”

"Okay, police department." It is indeed very uncomfortable to have a lot of things to investigate on Christmas Eve, but what is even more uncomfortable is that in the lively atmosphere of celebrating the holidays, the victim who has lost her temperature and everything, she is more uncomfortable than anyone else.

Dressed in a dark gray vertical striped suit, Fujiwara Yu arrived at the scene as quickly as he could, taking off his motorcycle helmet and walking directly to a house without paying attention to the messy hair.

Perhaps hearing the sound of the motorcycle's engine and realizing that it was the police who arrived at the scene, Mari Akashi, who was on crutches, quickly got up, and saw the purple-haired young man, and she subconsciously took a step back.

Fujiwara Yu walked through the iron gate and was greeted by the weather-beaten old face, his cloudy eyes revealing not surprise but fear when he touched him, and he knew very well that the old grandmother had misunderstood his identity.

"Grandma, are you the Pyrocalyptus? Don't be nervous, I'm a criminal police officer at the Osaka Police Headquarters. Fujiwara Yo did not walk in, but kept a reassuring distance from the grandmother, took out his police officer ID and explained.

When he saw the Sakura police badge, Mari Akashi's eyes moistened and said, "Little officer, my daughter was killed, you have to help find the murderer...... Please. ”

"Grandma, don't cry, I'll help you." Fujiwara Yu was most afraid of others crying, because his mouth was stupid and could not comfort people, so he had to divert the topic and ask, "Grandma, did you enter through the main entrance and find the body of the victim?" Mari Akashi tried to restrain her emotions and raised her index finger to point to the backyard, conveying what she wanted to convey faster than words.