Unnatural (アンナチュラル / Annachuraru / Unnatural Death)

- The terminology? - Yes, I have a problem with the terminology.

Hay fever, for example. It's even considered a national disease now, but

until it was named hay fever, no one knew about it.

That goes for chemical sensitivity as well. It was only acknowledged once it got its name.

- So? - I hereby propose a new terminology.

- Intersexual social gathering. - Inter...?

Intersexual as in man and woman. Intersexual social gathering.

Men and women who don't know each other meet to dine and converse to get to know each other.

- Oh, you mean group blind date. - Intersexual social gathering.

I don't like the terminology group blind date because it sounds so superficial.

- Your terminology sounds more obscene. - Obscene is okay at times too.

What are you talking about at 9 o'clock in the morning?

I don't want to be told that by someone eating tempura bowl from 9 o'clock in the morning.

I'm eating it because it's morning. As the start of a new day...

- Let's go intersexual social gathering. - Okay, that was good.

- Come on, let's go. - I'm not going.

- Come on, let's go. - Ask someone else.

- I want Mikoto to come with me. - Why?

Men are creeped out by our profession, right?

They sure are. And there's the 7 K's too.

Their creeped out feeling will be dispersed between the two of us.

They'll be doubly creeped out from the concentration.

Are you all right? It's time to get going.

- I want to quit. - Is this job really that bad?

- Come to think of it, I hear it's 7 K's. - Kitanai (dirty), kitsui (harsh), kiken (dangerous.

You know, I worked at a medical examiner's office in Osaka for 24 years

as a clinical laboratory technician.

So I don't have any complaints with the job.

- Then what is it? - It's that guy.

- That guy? - That guy who's 175-6 cm tall.

Isn't he a little taller than that?

It's going to be Nakado-san anyway, right?

No one that's teamed up with Nakado-san have lasted.

- No one? - 3 months at the most, 3 days at the shortest.

- That was fast! - I'm sure glad you came, Mikoto.

I was about to be assigned to Team Nakado.

What kind of a person is Nakado-san?

Let sleeping dogs lie. Kinda like No Face (in Spirited Away).

- No Face? - Although as a fellow medical examiner,

I should be taking on a more cooperative attitude.

That's impossible. But you know,

he may not look it, but I heard Nakado-san's divorced.

- What? He was able to get married?! - That's what I mean.

You two are pretty terrible.

- Mikoto may look like this, but she has a boyfriend too. - May look like this?

- Oh, really? - But she hasn't seen him at all lately.

So I'm trying to get her to go to an intersexual social gathering.

-Intersexual? - I don't know the reason, but

if things aren't going well, forget about the boyfriend for a while and just have fun partying.

- I'm meeting my boyfriend today. - No way!

- I lied. - Oh.

- I lied that I lied. - Which is it?

Ah~ Today again...

- You're late! - I'm sorry!

Excuse me, excuse me.

So you're saying that you can't accept the cause of death of your deceased son.

Yes. We've been turned down by all medical universities

and just when we were about to give up, someone from the funeral home told us about you.

Let me take a look.

I heard it was the most common cause of sudden death.

Coronary artery disease includes a wide range of disease

from angina to myocardial infarction.

In other words, it's the easiest cause of death for doctors to write down.

Our son was healthy. There's no way he could suddenly...

There was an incident previously, wasn't there?

Dozens of people who were thought to have died of heart failure

actually died of carbon monoxide poisoning

caused by a malfunction in the gas water heater.

- Yes. - Did my son

really just die of sudden death?

I don't blame you for having doubts.

In Japan, more than 80 percent of the so called unnatural deaths

are attributed to some likely cause of death without the benefit of an autopsy

before the remains are cremated.

That's the lowest standard among developed countries.

This Unnatural Death Investigation Laboratory,

commonly known as UDI Lab, was created in order to change that situation.

Approved by the Government, it's the first research institute in the nation

specializing in determining the cause of death.

Led by two forensic pathologists,

we conduct investigative autopsies on approximately 400 bodies annually

as requested by the police and municipalities.

There are test labs on-site within the institute, and

outside the 23 special wards of Tokyo, with Nishi Musashino city at the center,

we are accepting bodies from all over the country upon request.

However, in the case of autopsy request from the general public, payments must be made in advance.

In this case, this would be the payment.

We're from Forest Funeral Home.

It's been 10 days since death, and state of preservation is poor.

- It's quite ripe. - I think we should hurry.

I'm sorry to give you one job right after another, but please take care of it.

Who's going to handle it? Team Nakado or Team Misumi?

Then...

let's do rock paper scissors. Or draw straws.

Shall we roll dice?

All right. Let's flip a coin.

How long are you gonna keep making those crappy suggestions?

I just thought it would be better to decide fairly.

"Fairly." What a convenient word.

I'll do rock paper scissors or draw straws or whatever.

Once you become my equal in achievement.

Fairly.

Achievement?

Number of autopsies performed. More than 3,000 for Nakado-san.

- What about Misumi-san? - 1,500.

I'm sorry for not even being close to being his equal.

Not at all. You have an amazing accomplishment at your age.

She does, doesn't she? It's all meaningless if you have the quantity but not the quality.

It's all right. I'll quietly work on getting more experience.

I'm sorry for making both of you work with me without a lunch break.

Excuse me! May I entrust the body with you?

Yes. Sorry to keep you waiting.

The body is Takanoshima Wataru-san. Male, 35 years old.

His parents requested the autopsy in order to find the cause of death.

Takanoshima-san was found dead on the floor of

his apartment where he lived alone.

Wataru, are you home? Wataru?

His girlfriend found him when she came, suspecting something was wrong

when she couldn't get in touch with him.

There were no external injuries, nor were there any signs of a struggle.

There was nothing to cause suspicion in the room.

A simple inspection was performed at the scene and it was determined that there was no foul play.

The cause was determined to be coronary artery disease.

Can that be determined without an autopsy?

- They figured that's about it, more or less. - More or less?

In the case of this body, the location was bad. It was discovered in Tomikage City.

The closest medical university that can perform an autopsy is 40 km away.

- What does that have to do... - It's a hassle to transport it, right?

- That's the reason? - Even if there's a medical university near by,

the local police don't get along with them so they can't ask for an autopsy.

Is that a valid reason?!

Various factors, big and small, commingle to

create an unbelievable regional difference in rates of autopsy.

The 23 special wards of Tokyo have a fairly high autopsy rate of 17 percent.

For regions with the lowest autopsy rate, it's less than 2 percent.

You've got to choose your location when you die inadvertently.

You can't choose if you die inadvertently.

That was inadvertent.

No bleeding in the pleural cavity.

It's not aortic dissection, right?

No bleeding within the pericardium.

Pericardial effusion 10 ml.

No dilation of the heart noted.

No hardening of the coronary arteries.

That's not it~.

It isn't coronary artery disease.

- Does that mean there's a different cause? - Yeah.

There's a severe congestion of the kidneys overall.

Kidney, left. 110 grams.

Right, 100 grams.

The spleen and adrenal glands have dissolved.

It's been 10 days, after all.

It would be nice if they could bring the body in before it starts decaying, huh?

Renal cortex is pale. Medulla is congested.

Possibility of acute kidney failure.

- Toxic substance? - Possibly.

Kube-kun, take a picture of this, will you?

He's still green.

- There's a shower room in the basement. - It's not that bad.

No matter how careful you are, you can't keep the smell off.

We got the creatinine level. It's 3 times the normal level.

It was acute kidney failure without a doubt.

The question is, what caused the acute kidney failure.

You said earlier that it could have been poison, but

didn't the police do a toxicology test too?

A simple inspection will only detect a few types of poison.

But if you perform an autopsy and examine the extracted liver,

- you can detect 200 kinds of poison. - Really?

Kube-kun, for a medical student you don't know anything, do you?

- I'm not taking any forensic medicine classes. - I'm surprised you were hired, even as a part-timer.

Kube-kun was the only one who applied for that hourly wage.

- I forgot about that. - Was I really?

Why don't you take this opportunity to study to become a forensic pathologist?

Forensic pathology is science for dead people, right?

Clinical doctors who treat living people are little more...

Forensic pathology is work for the future.

Work for the future?

- Did you find the cause of death? - Not yet.

I'll have to see the results of the toxicology test.

Takanoshima-san's parents

called to tell me that they heard a strange story.

This woman, Shikishima Yuka-san.

Apparently, she was someone from an outside design company who was working with Takanoshima-san.

- "Yukarin"? - She's cute.

- She's not really my type... - We didn't ask for your type.

- What about her? - She died suddenly.

What's more, the day after Takanoshima-san died.

She was found dead in the apartment she lived alone, with no external injuries or anything suspicious in the room.

The police determined there was no foul play, and

the body was returned to her bereaved family with no autopsy being performed.

Everything's exactly like Takanoshima-san. It's too good to be true to be coincidental.

Serial murder by poison...

What if it was?

Let's go examine Yukarin's body.

Before the cause of death turns into ashes.

Episode 1 Nameless Poison

Thank you.

If you'd like, please have some tea in the other room.

It happened so suddenly, I don't know what's what...

The police said that since Yuka was taking medication for asthma,