Shi arrived at the crime scene, running out of her car with her kit bashing against her hip. Adachi followed her, trying to get her attention.
"Shi-chan! Stop!" He managed to get in front of her.
"What?!" She snapped, her hair falling around her face as she stood, her chest heaving.
"You….you're wearing my shirt." He said softly, trying not to attract attention. Shi paused, glancing down to see she was wearing one of his shirts. The white fabric hung off her frame, looking more like a dress. She shifted slightly.
"It'll be fine. No one will notice." She hoped. She quickly moved past him to the scene, standing beside Dojima as they looked at the body.
It was a man, approximately middle aged with dark hair and buck teeth.
"Isn't that…..one of the teachers from Yasogami high?" One of the crime scene officers asked. Dojima nodded, pulling out his notebook.
"That is Morooka Kinshiro, Homeroom teacher at Yasogami High. Apparently the students nicknamed him King Moron." He explained. Shi's eyes narrowed as she noticed something drip from where the body was. Placing her kit on the ground, she grabbed a white coverall and boot covers before heading up with the photographer. As he took pictures, she looked over the body. A large injury was on the back of his head, blood dripping from it.
"What do you see?" Dojima shouted.
"He has an injury. How? Is our killer devolving?" She murmured to herself. She looked back down at Dojima and the others. "He has a head wound. He's different from our other victims." She called. The photographer snapped pictures as crime scene officers processed the scene. Shi watched as her undertakers moved in to collect the body, having waited until she had everything she wanted.
"So, he has a clear cause of death?" Dojima asked her as the body was taken away. She shook her head.
"He has a injury. There is no guarantee it was the killing blow. I will know more once I have completed my autopsy." She replied. She turned and began to head to her car. "I take it you will be joining me." She added over her shoulder as she walked away.
Sure enough, shortly after she arrived at the morgue, Dojima and Adachi both walked in, the latter chewing several mints in order to block the smell. However, as she was removing the clothing from the victim, the door swung open again. Naoto walked in, looking at them expectantly.
"Ah. I have arrived just in time it seems." They said as they stood beside Dojima.
"Wrong. You are about to leave." Shi countered. "You have no right to be here."
"I am involved in this investigation."
"As a consultant. Not as a police officer. And the only other ones required in here aside from myself and my morgue staff are the police. So leave." Shi said firmly.
"But surely all investigative staff have a…." They were cut off by Shi slamming her scalpel down on the sharps tray.
"After death, the victim doesn't get alot of say in what happens. But what I always do my damnest to guarantee is a respectful autopsy with as little violation as possible. You are currently violating that and stopping it. So, I will say this just one more time. Get out." She snapped, her odd eyes burning with intensity as she glared the consultant down. Naoto stared back before turning and leaving.
"You know the chief is probably going to pull you up on that." Dojima noted as Shi turned back to the body.
"I don't care how strong, or who that kid thinks they are. If an adult cannot stand to watch a autopsy, a kid has no hope." She replied, picking up the scalpel to begin her procedure. The victim's clothing had already been taken, sent to her crime scene colleagues to start processing. She sliced through skin, muscle and fat, her recorder capturing every comment she made as her assistant passed her equipment. The body had all the telltale signs of alcohol abuse, she noted as she pulled the fatty liver out, noting scar tissue but how it had not yet advanced into cirrhosis yet.
"Couldn't that be what killed him?" Adachi asked hopefully.
"If his liver was showing signs of Cirrhosis and pretty much nothing but cirrhosis, I would suggest that complications with it could lead to death. But his liver has only reach the fibrosis stage where scar tissue has formed." She replied. She weighed the liver, recording every detail about it and sketching the scarring before carrying on. She turned her attention to the head.
"Despite being displayed in the same way as the previous two victims, there were obvious differences between this victim and the previous two." Shi stated to her dictaphone.
"Well, yeah. He is a man and the other two were women." Adachi said, yelping as Dojima punched him in the side of the head.
"You idiot." Dojima growled as Shi extended the Y incision from the chest up the neck and around the hairline.
"This victim has a obvious head wound." Shi stated, recording information about the injury. Adachi gagged as she peeled the hair over the corpse's face and examined the skull.
"Multiple skull fractures, consistent with the injuries to the head." She noted, taking the bone saw from her assistant. She cut open the skull, examining the brain.
"Hemorrhaging on the brain, consistent with the other injuries." She murmured. She stood, removing the brain and recording everything about it. As she finished with the dura membrane and began to put the corpse back together, Dojima cleared his throat.
"Well?"
"He was bludgeoned to death." Shi answered, not looking up from her work.
"But, what does that mean?"
"Someone beat him over the head repeatedly until he stopped moving." Shi countered, smirking at the look Dojima gave her. "Look, if you're asking what it means regards to the other two victims, I propose three possibilities. One, the killer can no longer use the original method of murder so improvised. Two, the killer is devolving which makes them alot more dangerous. Three, we have a copycat on our hands." She explained.
"So, we're hoping it's the same guy but there is a chance it isn't?" Adachi asked. Shi shrugged.
"It isn't my job to prove guilt. My job is to give the dead a voice, and give you evidence. You then use that to prove guilt." She said as her attendant placed the corpse into a fridge. She watched as the doors shut, wondering how many more times she would hear that sound before the case was solved.