Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.

Warning: This chapter contains some graphic descriptions of the corpse. Read at your discretion.

Chapter 3: Initial Investigation

The technical team of the Criminal Investigation Branch of the Tokyo Police Department had three major sections and abundant smaller units; altogether they formed an impressive complexity.

The offices of the three major sections all resided on the second floor of the main building, being Trace Evidence Analysis Section (TEAS), Biology Section, and Chemistry/Toxicology Section. Other minor sections dealt with digital evidence and, more recently, firearms and ballistics – though they were rarely put on the front stage.

Shinji and Asuka walked along the hallway in silence as they approached the TEAS office. "Come in!" A male voice came through behind the door after Asuka knocked. "Director Soryu." The inspector greeted with a nod before turning his head to Shinji, who stood behind the redhead. "Um…excuse me, are you new here? I don't remember seeing you before."

"He's Shinji Ikari, my assistant. He's never participated in a murder case before, so it's normal you haven't seen him." Asuka replied with a shrug.

"Shinji Ikari? The victim's friend?" The inspector asked. After receiving an affirmative nod from Shinji, he continued, "alright. Here, have a look at this, Ikari." He handed a black iPhone wrapped in a zipper storage bag. "Can you recognize this phone? Is this the phone your friend uses?"

"I don't exactly know what phone he uses, but the tags under his Facebook posts say 'iPhoneX'. So I think yeah." Shinji replied after a careful examination.

The inspector nodded, then spoke out a phone number. "Is the number your friend's?"

Shinji took out his phone and checked with his contact list. "Yes."

"Alright." The inspector nodded again. "I mean, this phone was indeed found from inside the victim's pocket. We've checked the fingerprints; they match as well."

"The problem is, after we unlocked the phone using the victim's fingerprint, we examined the phone and pulled out an operations log using the developer tools. Strangely, the log tells us that this phone had been put under flight mode ever since 1:30 p.m., without any incoming calls or outgoing calls."

"Wait, what?" Shinji frowned. "It's impossible! I definitely called-"

"I know." The inspector raised his hand, cutting him off. "You called him that afternoon, normally there should be call records."

"Could it be the suspect deleted the records?" Asuka suggested.

"No way." The inspector shook his head. "The log we pulled out tells us that no one has even unlocked it that afternoon, much less deleting the call records. One possible explanation is that the suspect might've duplicated the victim's SIM card, and used it to phonate to the outside."

"Duplicate SIM cards?" Shinji asked with a frown on his face. "I thought the telecom operators said that those cards can't be copied, that they have a high level of classification." Seeing the smug expression the inspector was giving him, Shinji raised his eyebrows as the realization struck him. "Wait, they're lying, aren't they?"

"Not exactly." The inspector smirked. "It is indeed an arduous task to replicate a SIM card without the original card. But if you do…well."

Asuka waved her hand dismissively. "Damn, so basically nothing useful except that the suspect might have a copy of the victim's SIM card. I don't like too many assumptions." At the moment her phone vibrated, she took it out from her pocket, her face immediately turned serious – though still carrying a hint of excitement – as she saw the text message. "Finally! Some substantial information. The autopsy came out."

"Autopsy?" Shinji tilted his head.

"Yep. We're going to the autopsy lab." Said Asuka in a rather nonchalant manner as she headed to the exit of the TESA office. Though her face dropped instantly as something ticked in her head. "Ah, Shinji. If you don't want to go, it's okay. He's your friend, after all."

"I'll be fine." Shinji took a deep breath and let out. "I mean, sooner than later, this will happen. It's inevitable to deal with corpses in our line of work. Even if he's my friend, I shouldn't let my personal emotions interfere with my work."

"I'm proud of you, Shinji." Asuka gave him a grin of pride, waving her hand at him and gesturing him to follow her. When she and Shinji started dating, he was already outstanding enough for her to open up to him. And no words could describe Asuka's feelings of seeing her already-competent boyfriend becoming even better.

Their footsteps echoed in the silent hallway as Shinji and Asuka headed to the autopsy lab. Not long after they reached in front of a grey metallic electronic door; with a punch on the button, the door slid open, allowing the detective duo to enter.

Upon entering Shinji and Asuka were assaulted by a smell mixed with disinfectant and blood. Furrowing his brows, Shinji forcibly suppressed his complaints. After all, the smell of the murder site was much worse.

The two walked straight up next to the autopsy table, Shinji had to force himself to keep his eyes on the corpse that had already gotten its cut open thoracic cavity, hoping to accept the impact on his vision as soon as possible.

"So, Suzuhara, anything noteworthy? Do we have confirmation on the cause of death?" Asuka inquired after making sure Shinji wouldn't freak out.

The forensic – Toji Suzuhara, senior coroner of the Criminal Investigation Branch - turned his head to them. "Director Soryu." He greeted before continuing. "Well, everything is clear. There's only one fatal wound on the body, on the side of his neck. Its full length measures 17.8 centimeters, a fusiform incision wound. There are no hesitation wounds on the edges of the wound, no sight of flap or tissue bridging the gap, either. It's apparent that the criminal tool used was very sharp with a straight edge, and the murder was extremely ruthless as well."

"The wound base is shallow on the right and deep on the left in general, the deepest part reaches cervical vertebrae. The windpipe and the esophagus were cut off along with the left branch of the common carotid artery."

"Though the direct cause of death is relatively complicated. Currently, it's believed that it's carotid artery rupture-induced hemorrhagic shock, combined with mechanical asphyxia induced by flooding of windpipe by blood. With the combined effect of the two, causing the victim to die quickly."

"Additionally, the stomach of the victim is empty. Though there're some digestion remains inside the duodenum. They are recognized to be fish, cabbage, and rice, likely to be the dinner the victim had the day before. The time of death is deduced to be five or six hours after the last meal. Along with the analysis of the rigor mortis, livor mortis, body temperature, turbidity of the cornea, and etcetera, it's hypothesized that the time of death is around twelve to two on the morning."

"That's about the basic situation for now. Any further questions?"

"Between twelve and two…" Shinji rubbed his chin. Seeing the encouraging look Asuka gave him, he spoke up again. "Well, is there any traces of poisoning? cutaneous abrasions, bruises, or any other signs of physical restraints?"

"No. None of that." Toji replied, shaking his head. "Though there're traces of scraping on all of his fingernails. The murderer must've cleaned them up after committing the murder. Perhaps the victim scratched the murderer's skin instinctively as he was stabbed, so the murderer had to clean up the DNA traces that we might be able to extract. In this regard, the murderer has a rather strong sense of anti-recon."

Asuka looked at Shinji with a thoughtful expression. "Well, Dr. Watson, what do you make of it?"

Shinji finally turned his head away from the corpse with a stern expression that he forced himself to wear on the face. "In my opinion, this is likely to be a murder by acquaintance."

Asuka raised her eyebrows, though making no further remarks and gesturing him to continue.

Shinji articulated the language before continuing. "First it's about the voice. The suspect faked Kaworu's voice and played the game with me. Let's forget about the motive first; if the suspect could reach such a level of similarity, it must mean that the suspect knows him closely, or at least been practicing for a long time."

"Secondly, it's about the SIM card. Like the inspector said, it's nearly impossible to make a clone of a SIM card without the original one. Of course, it could be that Kaworu lost his phone and the suspect got it, but in this case, Kaworu would've reported the loss immediately, then the SIM card would be no use to the suspect."

"Therefore, I think the suspect must've gotten Kaworu's SIM card through some reason that wouldn't raise his suspicion, and quickly made the clone. Only an acquaintance could pull it off."

Asuka nodded and wiggled her eyebrows, her expression light up. "And?"

Shinji couldn't help but smile a small smile before continuing. "Last but not least, it's about the victim. As Suzuhara said, there were no signs of struggling on the victim, nor were there poisoning traces, and the dead simply laid on the counter after he died. It must mean that the murderer must've gained a considerable amount of trust from Kaworu so that the murderer could enter and exit the counter freely without raising defenses from him, this way, the murderer could commit the crime from behind."

"Moreover, from the shape of the wound it's easy to see that the murderer is left-handed. And by chance, my analysis of the footprints tells me that the suspect uses the left foot as main support as well. A complete left-hand person."

"Anything else other than the obvious?" Asuka inquired with a smirk.

"Um…" Shinji pondered for a moment. "If the suspect were able to clone SIM cards, perhaps a little skill in electronic engineering is needed. Additionally, Kaworu's Riot Games account must've been hacked along with his LINE account. So the suspect might also be a skillful hacker."

"An acquaintance with a similar voice, left-handed, knows electronics…I think the range is small enough." Shinji finished, looking at Asuka with an expectant expression.

"Not bad, finally using that brain of yours," Asuka remarked, eliciting a sheepish expression from Shinji.

"Dude, don't you get it?" Toji's expression turned slightly amused. "She's saying that-"

A wry smile grew on Shinji's face. "I know that the deduction I made was only superficial." The smile turned smug as he continued. "Besides, it's not like Asuka beats me everywhere." The said woman eyed him, crossing her arms, her expression unreadable. "For instance, when we were in the police academy, unlike me, she couldn't even memorize those terminologies."

"Hey!" Asuka snapped and poked his side. "What's the point of saying it in front of other people!"

'I was about to say domination in bed,' fortunately Shinji caught his words right before they came out. Swallowing, Shinji knew he had just knocked on the Death's door. In his eyes, Asuka's plans for him – marry or murder – were equally dangerous. "I'm sorry."

"Gott, you still apologize too much," Asuka scoffed.

"It's not like every apology is undeserved."

"Yeah, yeah." With a wave of her hand, Asuka started walking out of the autopsy room. "Anyway, it's enough for today, I suppose. Tomorrow we're planning to start the on-site interviews for more evidence. You'd better be prepared for it!"

XXXXXX

Shinji's eyes fluttered open, grinning as he saw a gorgeous naked redhead lying beside him. The sunshine pierced through the window and shined onto both of them, engulfing two entangled bodies in a brilliant halo.

He didn't even need to check the alarm to know it was six in the morning; he and Asuka's life schedule was rather regular thanks to the strict life at the police academy. As if aroused by his thought, Asuka's body twitched before she yawned, signaling her waking up.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Shinji smirked.

"' orning…" Asuka greeted back; suddenly her eyes shot open as the realization dawned on her. "Fuck…I actually woke up later than you. It seems like I'm doing the chores today."

"Hm." Slowly Shinji disentangled himself from Asuka and stretched his limbs. "So what's the plan? I remember you say on-site interviews?"

"Yeah, actually…" Asuka grabbed her phone from the nightstand, reading the new message. "Maybe we should make a stop at the biology section. We can do the interviews in the afternoon."

"Sure." Shinji agreed and went to prepare for breakfast.

XXXXXX

The biology lab was just between the chemical lab and the TESA section. Upon entering the room, Shinji and Asuka could see the inspectors all look very dispirited – their eyes red, their face down.

"Working non-stop again, huh?" Asuka remarked. "Say, where is Rei?"

"She's gone to the genetics lab. There's a big discovery made." One of the inspectors replied.

"Oh?" Asuka's interest was picked up immediately. "What is it?"

"Well," the inspector explained. "Dr. Ayanami didn't come back with us yesterday. She stayed at the murder site to continue to examine the traces, mainly fingerprints."

"Fingerprints?" Shinji couldn't help but ask. "I mean, it's a convenience store. People go there and touch stuff, fingerprints don't count."

"Normally yes. However," the inspector shook his head. "The area behind the counter, especially around the cashier register, was not somewhere ordinary people could enter. Dr. Ayanami had picked up lots of fingerprints, however after the examination, they were all from the victim. Therefore, we speculate the suspect did the job wearing gloves."

"Nevertheless, other than fingerprints, Dr. Ayanami found some hair around the counter and on the floor. The point is, they aren't from the victim. Different colors and sizes. Very likely to be left by the suspect."

"So Dr. Ayanami sent the hairs to the genetics lab for identification as soon as she came back, now the reports are out, the lab called her to take it."

"Oh? The suspect's DNA profile is out?" Asuka's eyes lit up. "It's a big breakthrough!"

"Yeah, it is." Before Asuka's voice could die out, another female voice sounded behind her, catching her attention. "My scavenging and rummaging aren't in vain."

Shinji and Asuka both turned to the voice, just to see a short-haired female police officer standing at the doorway, a pile of documents in her hand. "Rei!" Shinji immediately recognized the newcomer, walking up before her with a smile.

"Wait, you know each other?" The inspector asked in confusion.

Rei smiled. "Shinji is my cousin." She answered rather concisely. "Anyway, the suspect's DNA profile came out. The reports say the suspect is somewhat related to the victim, the similarity of their DNA profiles is pretty high, perhaps it's a blood relationship."

"However, the report also indicates that they aren't brothers. They might be cousins, but the report is still too vague for us to draw any conclusions. If you want, you can send the samples to the Headquarters, they have more advanced equipment."

"No need." After taking a glance at the report, Asuka shook her head. "For now, we just need to shift our focus more on the victim's relatives who have motives. We have the DNA profile, anyway. By the time we found the suspect, we simply need to do another DNA test and see if they match."

"Well, you're right." Rei nodded.

"Wait, if the hairs are from a relative, then our initial assumption can't hold anymore." Seeing the inquisitive looks from Rei and Asuka, Shinji continued. "I mean, it's normal for a relative to be able to enter the area behind the counter, right?"

"No," Rei shook her head. "The hairs were floating on the blood, which tells they fall down after the murder, otherwise they should be immersed by blood. Therefore, it's safe to assume the hair came off from the suspect."

"Besides, I found a shoeprint on the edge of the window. But Luminol reagent had no effect on it…"

"So, this means that when the suspect climbed through the window, there wasn't blood on his shoes!"

XXXXXX

AN: Special Thanks to Guest, skyf0x, , SheriffJohnStone, and HydrationStation's reviews!