Flaw Hunting

Synopsis of Defect Hunter: The police department's newly established Special Case Investigation Unit handles perfect crimes that ordinary departments have deemed impossible to solve, or at least, perfect on the surface. On his first day, rookie accompanying officer Futaki Abe Hiroshi is told that his partner is a genius detective known as the Defect Hunter, an eccentric who can always tear open the truth by spotting what's imperfect at a crime scene. But Futaki soon discovers that the detective sees the world in a completely different way. He doesn't care who the culprit is, but focuses on why the culprit couldn't make the crime perfect. “Every crime leaves a defect. Not a mistake by the culprit, but a crack in human nature itself.” When a body is found in a completely sealed apartment, everyone searches for an answer to the question, “How did the killer get out?” The detective instead tells Futaki to investigate: “What doesn't belong in this room?” When a mimicry murder modeled on medieval punishments shocks society, the media goes wild over a “ritualistic killer.” The detective fixes his gaze on the victim's brand-new designer leather shoes: “Who would go to the trouble of changing into a pair of ill-fitting shoes just before walking to their death?” As Futaki gradually comes to understand these seemingly meaningless “defects,” he realizes that the detective is investigating far more than just the cases.