Episode 4: Necrosis
The drowned body of a young girl is found at a mansion’s indoor pool. It seems that the incident had happened while her parents were away on a holiday. Postmortem findings indicate that the cause of death was heart failure. However, for some reason, a portion of the skin on the girl’s chest is dead. Kaoru, who goes to visit Yukawa with this on her mind, asks him why the skin has necrotised. However, Yukawa says that this isn’t a category of physics and sends her away.
One day, Yukawa, who has finished his speech at a meeting of physicists held at Yotsuya Institute of Technology, is hailed by a student. The student is Tagami Shoichi, who says he is impressed by the content of Yukawa’s speech. He is a student of this university. Yukawa, who remembers Tagami’s name, recalls a thesis. Having an interest in the thesis subject, Yukawa hands Tagami his name card and tells him to contact him anytime before parting with him. Then, Kaoru appears there. The girl who drowned, Shinozaki Reiko, was a student of this university.
Kaoru, who catches sight of Yukawa, approaches him to discuss the matter again but he turns a deaf ear. At that moment, she suddenly sees the words “dermatitis cutting edge technology” on a notice board. Thinking that she will understand the reason for the necrosis of the skin, Kaoru visits that lab and Tagami, dressed in a white coat, is there. Tagami, who has heard about the case from Kaoru replies that it isn’t related to heart failure. Then, Kaoru receives a brooch carved and made from semiconductor material called silicon wafer from Tagami.
One day, Tagami visits Yukawa’s lab. He asks if Yukawa has any intention to go overseas to do research. Tagami seems to have his sights on venturing into the armaments industry because he wants to do research that is of practical use to society and receive corresponding reward for that. He finds it interesting to think of remote weapons. As Tagami laughs at these words, Yukawa seems to feel something.
At the same time, Kaoru and Yuge plan to end the investigation as there are no leads on the connection between the heart failure and the chest bruise. A call comes from Yukawa who says he wants Kaoru to tell him the details of the case once again.
Yukawa, who visits the medical coroner’s office with Kaoru, is shown the autopsy results and dead cells by Sakurako. Although Kaoru is baffled by Yukawa’s hint that this is a potential case, she starts to investigate people who died of heart failure in the last six months at his direction.
The next day, Kaoru visits Yukawa’s lab to ask him to justify his murder theory. However, Yukawa is absent, and his assistant Kuribayashi is using a plastic welder to do some welding. Kaoru talks to Kuribayashi about Tagami. At the same moment, Yukawa is in the university’s library looking through the medical journals. Tagami’s article is published in one of the professional publications.
Kaoru, who visits Tagami’s place, tells him that there’s a possibility that Reiko’s death was a murder. Tagami’s expression momentarily changes when he learns for the first time of Yukawa’s assistance in the investigation, but he immediately tells Kaoru he will think about the methods to trigger heart failure.
Yukawa, who has returned to the lab, mobilises Murase and his other seminar students and makes them search international websites for the keywords “assassination”, “heart failure” and “weapon”. Before long, a Cuban site surfaces. On the site is the sales pitch, “assassination method that looks like heart failure” “most appropriate for assassinations” “confirmed results through multiple experiments”.
On the other hand, Kaoru finds two case records involving suspicious deaths just like Reiko’s in the past six months. She goes to Yukawa’s lab to report this and doesn’t realise it when she drops the brooch she had received from Tagami on the floor. She later visits Tagami and tells him that this case might extend into a series of murders. Tagami learns that Yukawa has something on his mind and that Kaoru is the only one on Reiko’s case. Whereupon, Tagami presents Kaoru with a luxury hotel voucher.
That night, Yukawa goes for a drink with Kusanagi. He tells Kusanagi that it is Kaoru’s fault that he’s made no progress in his research. Then Kusanagi replies that Kaoru seems stressed and that she had taken her first holiday in three weeks to freshen up at a luxury hotel.
The next day, Yukawa calls Tagami and invites him to have a meal or something as he want to talk to him. Tagami is now at the lobby of a luxury hotel. He replies that he can’t because he has an appointment today. Then Yukawa suddenly says, “You were the one who killed, weren’t you?” However, Tagami who knows that Yukawa hasn’t figured out the murder method, suppresses his laughter as he says “it’s better if you give up on the unsolvable problem and take a good rest” and hangs up. At that moment, Yukawa hears the sound of bells coming from behind Tagami.
Kaoru is enjoying her holiday at the hotel using the voucher she had obtained from Tagami. While she is dining at the restaurant, Tagami arrives. He says he’s also here to spend the weekend.
As Yukawa contemplates the murder method Tagami devised, Kuribayashi comes. Kuribayashi notices Kaoru’s fallen brooch and tells Yukawa that it was handcrafted by Tagami. In the instant Yukawa learns that Tagami carved the silicon wafer with an ultrasonic machine, something flashes through his mind.
Yukawa calls Kaoru and tells her that the criminal used ultrasound to kill the victims. When ultrasound waves are fired into water, negative pressure is created and air pockets and bubbles develop in the water. In the instant that pressure changes from negative to positive, the evaporating bubbles have destruction effect he says. In the middle of the conversation, Yukawa hears the sound of bells. That came from the bells attached to a sign a hotel staff is holding. Kaoru, who is in the middle of her meal with Tagami, says she will immediately investigate this tomorrow, hangs up and shuts off her mobile phone.
After the meal, Kaoru returns to her room supported by Tagami. Tagami had put a drug into her wine. Kaoru, who has entered the bath, falls asleep inside. Then an intruder breaks into Kaoru’s room and attempts to kill Kaoru with the same ultrasound tool used to kill Reiko. At that instant, Yuge and other police rush into the bathroom and arrest the man. But that man isn’t Tagami.
Tagami, who is about to leave the hotel, senses Yukawa’s presence in the lobby. Yukawa invites Tagami to the hotel bar andd tells Tagami that Kaoru is safe. Yukawa tells Tagami that a person should be true to his topic of research if he’s a scientist. He says Tagami had neglected the necrotised skin but that wasn’t missed by Kaoru. Therefore the ultrasound tool Tagami made was a failure. Yukawa then hands a handwritten blueprint to Tagami and tells him that his method won’t leave any bruises. Tagami looks at that blueprint and cannot hide his shock …
The following day, Kaoru visits Yukawa’s lab. It is said that Tagami admitted his crime. However, Kaoru is sorely depressed that she was asleep at the crucial moment and that her colleagues had seen her naked. Yukawa gives Kaoru a sideways glance, and throws the brooch she had dropped into the dustbin.
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