Mitsuru Kuroiwa (died January 2019) was a Japanese policeman who worked as a detective in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD)'s Organized Crime Division and as a contract killer. He became a serial killer nicknamed "the Mole" amid the Ministry of Health's AD-9 conspiracy, and he was shot dead by his fellow police during a hostage crisis at the Advanced Drug Development Center (ADDC) in 2019.
Biography[]
Kuroiwa in 2019
Mitsuru Kuroiwa was born in Tokyo, Japan. He enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but he was corrupted by his mentor, who frequently worked with the Tojo-kai. After his mentor's corruption was discovered and the man committed suicide to avoid prison, Kuroiwa murdered the snitch and made it appear to be a suicide; he then continued his mentor's informant work, trading info to the Tojo in exchange for leads on cases.
In 1998, Kyohei Hamura of the Tojo Clan's Matsugane-gumi hired Kuroiwa to dispose of dead bodies and, ultimately, to carry out hit contracts. ADDC researcher Yoji Shono later sent his middleman Mitsuru Ishimatsu to hire Kuroiwa to assassinate ADDC vice director Toru Hashiki before he could discover the inefficacy and health risks of the AD-9 Alzheimer's drug. Kuroiwa framed Hashiki's death as the result of a drunken brawl, and Shono later had Kuroiwa kidnap Kyorei-kai gangsters so that Shono and Vice Minister of Health Kaoru Ichinose could test AD-9 on them. When each of them died from the drug, their eyes were clawed out to hide the evidence of the drug's poisonous effects on the brain and eyes, leading to the news beginning to call the mysterious killer "the Mole."
By 2018, the murders of Kenkichi Mashiba, Yasuo Kunimura, and Toshiro Kume attracted the attention of the Yagami Detective Agency, as Hamura - wrongly arrested for their murders - hired private detective Takayuki Yagami to prove his innocence. Kuroiwa arrested Hamura to make it appear as though he was not the murdered, but Hamura's ultimate acquittal stained Kuroiwa's otherwise flawless record. Yagami and his former law partner Masamichi Shintani, curious about "the Mole", dug deeper into the killings and attempted to contact Yoji Shono, whom they had been told by Hamura to reach out to if he was convicted. Kuroiwa was forced to kill Shintani to cover Shono's tracks, shooting him dead and planting the murder weapon on the unconscious Kazuya Ayabe to frame the corrupt policeman for the murder. Yagami picked up where Shintani left off, even as Kuroiwa attempted to obstruct him from visiting the ADDC and confronting Shono and Ichinose, and Yagami ignored Kuroiwa's threats to abandon his investigation.
Kuroiwa questioning Yagami
Not long after, Yagami and the Kyorei-kai kidnapped Hamura and interrogated him for answers about the AD-9 conspiracy. Kuroiwa, clad in a black raincoat identified with "the Mole," attempted to kill Hamura before he could give up the details of the plot, infiltrating the burning Soleil Building as Hamura's men attempted to rescue their boss. Kuroiwa shot at Hamura several times, only for Patriarch Mitsugu Matsugane to take the bullets. Kuroiwa was forced to flee as the building collapsed, and he later returned to the scene in his detective attire. Informed of the Mole's identity by Hamura, Yagami warned Kuroiwa that he was onto him, but Kuroiwa bragged that he was untouchable due to his ties to government ministers. He later kidnapped Kyorei-kai captain Satoshi Shioya and sent him to Shono for experimentation, resulting in his death.
After Yagami captured ADDC Director Ryusuke Kido, Kuroiwa headed to the Charles arcade and rescued Kido while brutally beating Yagami's friends Masaharu Kaito and Toru Higashi. A few days later, he confronted Yagami at Ayabe's underground casino as he attempted to persuade Chief Prosecutor Kunihiko Morita to help him, and Kuroiwa had Morita look the other way as he attacked Yagami. Yagami bested Kuroiwa in a drawn-out fight, but Morita confiscated Kuroiwa's gun before the situation could turn deadly.
Kuroiwa dying as Shono injects himself with AD-9
Within a month's time, Yagami's work succeeded in unmasking the stitch-up against Ayabe and the corrupt dealings of the Health Ministry. Vice Minister Ichinose, desperate to cover his tracks, sent three homeless men to assassinate Kuroiwa at Theater Square, but Kuroiwa killed all three men and found out that they were sent by Ichinose. Kuroiwa then went on a one-man revenge mission to murder Shono at the ADDC, and he took Shono hostage. Yagami learned of the crisis and rushed from the courtroom to the hospital, where he fought his way through the police and confronted Kuroiwa. Yagami demanded that Kuroiwa give up, as the truth was being exposed in court, but Kuroiwa refused, insisting that Shono finish the AD-9 drug so that both men could be viewed as heroes despite their many crimes. Yagami was forced to fight Kuroiwa one last time, and Kuroiwa was ultimately defeated. Kaito, Higashi, and the police arrived shortly after, and Kaito threw a couch at Kuroiwa before he could lunge at Shono with a hidden blade. When Kuroiwa once again attempted to attack Shono, he was shot ten times by the nearby officers, and he mocked Shono's failures as he died. Desperate to show his worth, Shono injected himself with AD-9, only to be poisoned to death as Kuroiwa offered a last laugh and died.