21st Century Necromancer

Outside the operating room, Doctor Higashiyama was sitting on a chair against the wall, his face etched with tension. His worried gaze was fixed on the light above the operating room door, and his clasped hands betrayed the turmoil churning inside him.

The Glasses Doctor, dressed in surgical attire, saw Doctor Higashiyama like this and came over to console him, "Higashiyama, don't be so nervous. You've seen Professor Chen and Dr. Daimon's surgical skills, your sister will be fine. If you really can't set your mind at ease, you could go to the observation room. Isn't it just nerve-racking waiting here?"

"No, I don't want to see my sister's body being cut open, bloodied and in a mess, I can't handle that." Doctor Higashiyama shook his head. Although as a doctor he was fully capable of watching the entire surgery from the observation room, just like he said, seeing his own younger sister lying on the operating table, having her back cut open and spine removed was not something everyone could endure. Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire

Understanding, the Glasses Doctor nodded and patted him on the shoulder, "I get it, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Professor Chen's surgical plan is flawless, your sister will definitely be healed, she'll surely be able to stand again and attend your wedding."

"Thank you." The comfort from the Glasses Doctor eased Doctor Higashiyama's distress considerably. After expressing his gratitude, he noticed the other's surgical attire and asked with concern, "Don't you have the day off from surgeries today? Why are you still dressed for surgery? Is there an emergency?"

"Yeah, there's a severely burned patient who was brought in, needing urgent treatment." The Glasses Doctor nodded and then headed towards the doors of the operating room, "Can't talk anymore, I have to go perform surgery."

Watching the Glasses Doctor enter the operating room, Doctor Higashiyama was left alone once again, his silence heavy as he stared at the 'In Surgery' light above the door, quietly praying for Higashiyama Keika's safe passage through the procedure.

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While the operating rooms of Eastern University Affiliated Hospital were abuzz with activity, the UDI's autopsy room was no less busy.

The person sent to Eastern University Affiliated Hospital was a survivor of a fire, and besides him, there were ten other victims who had been charred to death. The living were sent to the hospital for rescue, while the dead naturally ended up at UDI for a forensic autopsy to determine their identities.

Thanks to the sponsorship obtained by Director Kamikura at a Mingyue Society gathering, and with support from the legislator Isshiki Kazumasu, the situation at UDI had recently improved. Therefore, even when faced with ten bodies whose identities were unknown, everyone still threw themselves into their work with full vigor.

"All the corpses have their limbs curled up," Rokuro Kube remarked as he looked at the bodies being brought into the autopsy room.

Due to the shortage of staff at UDI, combined with the sizable case at hand which the police could not ignore, it was the personnel from the police forensic department that were responsible for carrying in the bodies.

Tokairin Yūko directed them to place the bodies in order in the autopsy room and casually explained to Rokuro, "This is characteristic of bodies that have been burned to death, the muscles contract from the intense heat causing them to stiffen."

As she spoke, Tokairin Yūko handed a measuring tape to Rokuro and continued, "Since height cannot be measured, we can only estimate it by measuring the length of the limbs' bones."

While Tokairin Yuko and Kube Rokuro were measuring the skeletal length of the cadaver, Misumi Mikoto also began the autopsy on body number one.

Looking at the severely damaged body, she couldn't help but sigh. She performed the examination earnestly while also wishing in her heart that she could converse directly with the deceased. That way, she could have learned much information without the effort of post-autopsy data comparison!

At that thought, Mikoto couldn't help but envy Chen Yu. Although it was all her conjecture, the ability to communicate with the dead would be incredibly tempting for a forensic scientist.

Forensic scientists are often called "Mortuary Linguists," able to make a corpse "speak" and reveal the truth of the incident, to give the deceased justice. All of that sounded very beautiful and noble, but behind it was the grueling work of night and day spent with corpses. After all that, many times, even with sufficient clues from the body, they still might not be able to identify the deceased.

All the forensic scientist could do was determine how they died.

If forensic scientists could really make the deceased talk, would there be so many urns of unidentified ashes in UDI's basement?

But if one could truly converse with the dead using transcendent powers and make them speak, how wonderful that would be! The mere thought made Mikoto shudder with excitement. Police wouldn't have to conduct laborious investigations, and she wouldn't need to watch unidentified bodies get cremated and placed in the never-emptied storage chamber beneath.

The more she thought about it, the stronger the urge grew in Mikoto's heart to bring Chen Yu to UDI. With him around, it should be simple to determine the identities of these ten bodies, right? Or perhaps she should learn the skill of speaking with the dead directly from him? It's better to rely on oneself than others.

The associate professor of a grand university hospital couldn't possibly come to work at UDI, nor could she always go to him for help whenever an issue arose. Wouldn't it be simpler to learn the method of conversing with the dead herself?

Mikoto didn't understand the nature of Chen Yu's abilities, but from the so-called information about "Transcendents" she found online, and from what Tokairin Yuko told her about the wealthy second-generation informant, she was certain that a group called Transcendents really existed in this world, and Chen Yu was clearly one of them, possessing the power of a Transcendent.

However, to the average person, the existence of Transcendents was a secret. Even if she told others, they would think she was insane rather than believe in the existence of Transcendents, or that people could converse with the dead.

In fact, Mikoto herself hadn't believed it at first. But during the live murder incident, Classmate Shirai turned off the live stream but didn't disconnect the call. Hence, while on a video call with him, Mikoto saw everything that happened in the end.

Yu Chen and Hiromi Jounouchi burst into the room, stopping Classmate Shirai from committing suicide. While Hiromi Jounouchi was lecturing Shirai, Chen Yu summoned the soul of Classmate Yokoyama.

To be honest, what happened then was a huge shock to Mikoto. It was the first time she'd witnessed the existence of a soul, overturning nearly thirty years of understanding of the world. There truly were ghosts in this world, and indeed, there were people who could communicate with them, even make their forms manifest. It was astonishing.

This was also why she researched Chen Yu so thoroughly. She hoped to learn this method of communicating with the dead from him, but… how could she convince Chen Yu to teach her?