Volume 30

Chronology
‹ Volume 29	List of Chapters • List of Cases	Volume 31 ›

Volume 30
Information
Release date:	December 18, 2000
Chapters:
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-125500-0
Publisher:	Shogakukan
English release date:	July 21, 2009
English ISBN:	ISBN 1-4215-2198-9
English Publisher:	Viz Media
Featured Detective & Keyhole
John Thorndyke Saguru Hakuba
Aoyama's death & Conan side images

Volume 30 was released on December 18, 2000 in Japan.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Heiji Hattori Kazuha Toyama Wataru Takagi Miwako Sato Juzo Megure Yumi Miyamoto Kaitou Kid Ai Haibara Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Sumiko Kobayashi Sonoko Suzuki Makoto Kyogoku (background) Shinichi Kudo (background) Gin (background) Mrs. Kojima (background) Kikuemon (background) Ray Curtis (background)

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Police Escort Murder Case

File 296 - Straight Ball Match

While traveling home on the Shinkansen from Osaka, Conan, Ran, and Kogoro ran into Officers Sato and Takagi, who were transporting a criminal. Later, a bomb was found on the train which Officer Sato went to investigate. At that time, while she was in the bathroom with it, Officer Takagi had to take the criminal to the bathroom. And then, he apparently committed suicide but...

File 297 - The Open Closed Room

Conan doesn't believe in the suicide theory and investigates the three men who went to the bathroom, as one of them may be the murderer.

File 298 - Time Trap

  Show spoilers »

The culprit is Akira Akashi. He tries to escape but is knocked down by Takagi and Sato. He wanted to silence Ogura to prevent the police from tracing back the drug network he and Ogura were in. Ironically, Akashi's capture enabled the police to do it indeed. Takagi and Sato get severely scolded by Megure for leaving a suspect alone, which resulted in his death, and he decides to cut down their wages. Yet, the two's love relationship seems to be set fair, and Ran is impressed at Takagi's "direct balls and not curved ones". She wants to learn this lesson and apply it with Shinichi.

People

Senzo Ogura
	Victim (stabbed) Drug dealer

Tatsuro Iwakuni
	47 years old Passenger

Norio Tokuyama
	51 years old Passenger

Akira Akashi
	29 years old Passenger

Kaitou Kid and the Murder

Characters introduced

Saguru Hakuba
	17 years old Detective Kid's rival

Renya Karasuma
	Millionaire Previous Twilight Mansion owner

File 299 - The Meeting

Kogoro has been invited to a detective meeting by an unknown person who sends him money, and who calls himself "the one God shot off, the offshoot of illusions". Kogoro gets enraged as the shortcut the gas station's old man had told them to take actually leads nowhere and is completely muddy from the rain. Suddenly, they emerge on a road, and Conan says the old man didn't lie as they notice not far away the place where Kogoro, Conan and Ran are heading to : the dark and mysterious "Twilight Mansion". Ran is afraid to go there as she believes the old mansion may be Count Dracula's one, but Kogoro replies they're in Japan therefore they might rather meet Yamanba, the mountain's sorceress, than Dracula, and abruptly brakes as they see Yamanba right in the middle of the road. The "Yamanba" is actually an old woman whose car broke down and who asks Kogoro for a lift to Twilight Mansion, where she believes Kogoro goes as well. As Ran asks her dad to go quicker as she really needs to go to the washroom, the old woman asks her why she didn't do it when she was at the gas station, saying that "people who move up the ladder are always those who grasp the opportunities that open up before them, and who don't wait for another ones to come, as it might never be the case again". As Conan asks the old woman to speak her mind, she says Kogoro's car's ashtray is empty, and a cigarette butt seems to have fallen from it not long ago. This means the driver is a heavy smoker and his ashtray was probably full to the brim; if the ashtray is now empty it can only mean it had been emptied very recently, probably at the gas station further down. She adds a gentlmen kindly accepting to give a lift to a poor old lady would never be so ill-mannered as to throw his butts through the window on his daughter's side and in front of her. As Kogoro asks her who she is, she introduces herself as Furuyo Senma, the famous detective who solves mysteries sitting peacefully on a cosy armchair, just by listening to the narrative of the criminal facts. Senma adds she knows Sleeping Kogoro very well by reputation, and takes the ashtray away as she hates cigarette smoke and doesn't want Kogoro to smoke until they've arrived

As they turn up, Kogoro comments on the spooky and faded mansion which must only belong to a monster. He also marvels at the numerous vintage cars lined up on the parking lot, and puts his hand over an Alfa Romeo, only to be scolded by Harufumi Mogi, a detective who tells him it took him years to acquire it and doesn't want any stranger to touch it. Senma and Mogi know each other, and Mogi seems to be the adventurer kind, as he was shot in Chicago not long ago during work. Mogi says he's too young to settle down and just wants now to eat a quality dinner as promised by their host. Suddenly, they hear Shukuzen Oogami, the "gourmet detective", yelling at Aki Ishihara, the mansion's recently hired maid, that he doesn't accept the cook's absence due to illness as he loves good dinners and only came for that. As the maid tells him she bought all the ingredients though, Oogami says he'll cook the dinner himself instead, being both a cuisine and mystery expert. Ishihara says to Senma's group there are six detectives there - excluding Conan. As Ran thinks Shinichi may have been invited, Ishihara says Shinichi Kudo could not be reached and Heiji Hattori had mid-term exams to prepare and then had to turn the offer down. These two people's desistance allowed for Conan and Ran to come with Mouri.

Ishihara says she has never met her boss, the host, she was hired after a mysterious job interview. She had come for the interview as usual, waiting with heaps of other candidates as it was a golden and very well-paid job opportunity, and she saw every candidate leaving the interview room in disappointment, systematically failing. When it was her turn at last, she entered and just saw a computer with a list of instructions and people to invite. Suddenly, a message was displayed on the computer saying she was taken on. She only exchanged mails with her boss afterwards concerning the other steps and preparations of the evening. Senma's interest seems aroused by the story, so is Mogi's, who adds he got excited when he noticed the old blood splatters on the entrance door. Another detective, a woman called Ikumi Soda, tells them there are blood splatters scattered here and there in the whole mansion, walls, floor, items, etc. Someone tried to wipe them out, the blood may belong to one or two people at least. Soda is dressed in forensic lab's clothes, spraying luminol over the blood stains to bring them out, because she's a former police investigator, as a young detective named Saguru Hakuba says. Hakuba's tamed hawk named Watson has developed a taste for blood due to Hakuba's bringing him everywhere on crime scenes during his murder investigations back in England. Hakuba adds he came back to his native country to check if the legend was true, that they are in a house where a massacre happened 40 years ago, and they're probably the first ones to open this well-hidden mansion's doors again after the events.

Ishihara then takes Senma's group to their respective rooms and suggests the other guests should go and relax in the lounge, while the dinner is being prepared. Mogi and Hakuba are playing snooker - Hakuba is very skilled at it - while Senma and Kogoro are playing chess, and Ran, Conan and Soda are playing cards. Ran shows the worthy cards sequence she got, and Conan comments to himself she's still such a jammy beggar. But Soda tells her she cheated as there are six cards in her hand : the jack card is stuck to another card...with blood. Mogi says the mansion's objects stayed in the same state as they were during the bloody massacre, for 40 years, which gives Ran goose bumps and she starts with surprise as Ishihara abruptly enters the lounge to invite them to the dining room, where the host is waiting for them - they all look forward to it, except Ran.

The host is already sitting, wearing a frightening phantom's hood with only two eye slits. He invites them to sit down where they wish, as Oogami tells Ishihara to bring the dishes in the order he told her previously. The host says he invited all of them because he wants them to find the hidden treasure of his mansion, the millions he hoarded during his whole long life. He wants them to search it at the risk of their own lives. All of a sudden, all the cars on the parking lot explode and burn, so does the only bridge connecting the mansion to the rest of the world. The host says he cut off their retreat to play some time with them, and to reverse the chased-chaser roles : he tells them there's no phone in the mansion neither any mobile phone network around. It's a dead or alive game : only one person can be told how to escape Twilight Mansion, the one who will retrieve the treasure, and get the half of it as a reward too.

Mogi takes off the host's hood in anger, who is revealed to be a mannequin with a loudspeaker fixed to it. As the host tells them to enjoy the last dinner of their existence, Mouri asks who he really is and all five detectives are surprised he didn't get earlier their host's identity: "the one God shot off, the offshoot of illusions". Offshoot means a non-desired child, whether human or animal. Illusions have to do with sorcerers, wizards, manipulators, ghosts or even demons. "God shot off" means this child stands alone in the darkness and is a crime expert. In the Bible's New Testament, the "shot off" or rejected ones are the lost sheep, and a sheep's or a goat's child is called a kid, therefore Kid the Phantom Thief, Hakuba's rival, the one detectives would love to catch, the elusive one who uses tricks and is never caught by the police, even called supernatural, and wearing "innocent" white clothes in the dark, is their host.

File 300 - Tragedy

Conan casts a glance at everyone around the table who got tense as they heard Kid's name, and he believes Kid is in the mansion, probably disguised as usual as one of the people around. But Conan thinks to himself there's a faint probability Kid escapes as there are 7 excellent detectives around the table. As Kogoro is amazed to hear Kid is the mysterious host, the detectives tell him the phantom thief wants to test their unrivalled abilities : their lives in exchange of all the riches he stole and hoarded up to now. Kid must be spying on them right now as the detectives noticed hidden cameras here and there in the mansion. Ishihara comes in with the five-star dinner, and Senma comments on the fact it's not Ishihara's boss who told her to serve the guests in such order, to which Ishihara replies actually it is Hakuba (or Oogami ?) who had asked her to serve people clockwise. Senma thinks there's something fishy as the host said it would be their last dinner. Oogami tells her not to worry about anything as he did prepare dinner and assures them food hasn't been poisoned. Hakuba says they should be careful though as the table had been laid beforehand and each one of them sat in front of the card mentioning their name, implying Kid may be trying to play a bad prank on them. Hakuba suggests they all wipe their respective cutlery and glasses with a handkerchief before beginning to eat. Mogi rather suggests they all switch places at random by drawing straws. He answers Kogoro's fear that someone may be poisoned and die all the same saying if this is the case he'll just have to think about how short life is and cry about it in a cosy coffin. As they enjoy their delicious and high-quality dishes, they wonder if their imagination is not getting a little too far. Suddenly, the host's mannequin resumes his speech and asks them if the dinner was to their liking.

He then explains them why he decided to splurge on this mansion where the game is now occurring. He asks them to have a look at the enigmatic crest showing a freaky crow, on and under their tableware, just as the ones they might have noticed in various places of the mansion. It is the crest of Renya Karasuma, an ominous crow-like billionaire who mysteriously vanished into thin air some 40-50 years ago. As the name Karasuma seems to trigger the attention, the host takes over saying Twilight Mansion was Renya's personified nest he had had built for himself, this mansion where, 40 years ago, a bloodcurdling tragedy occurred, during a stormy night, explaining the numerous blood traces in the dwelling. The guests listen to the host with some certain excitement, and Oogami bites his nails. Forty years ago, as the mansion was still shining with magnificence, several famous VIPs, tycoons, powerful politicians and financiers from Japan and the whole world had come to Twilight Mansion to officially take part to a commemoration evening about Renya Karasuma who had died recently of old age, at 99. But in fact the evening was actually meant to be a three-day illegal auction sale during which not less than 300 pieces of valuable artwork Karausma had collected during his whole life were to be flogged. On the second day's night, right in the middle of the sale, two mysterious soaking-wet men knocked at the mansion's door. They tried to speak through their cold-shivering lips, saying they got lost in the storm, and saw a light in the mountain coming right from the mansion. They ask the auctioneer if they may stay at the mansion and shelter themselves for a moment while waiting out the storm. The auctioneer accepted to let them in as the two men sold him a mysterious plant leaf. They told him how to smoke it and time flying by the auctioneer got more relaxed and agreed to give both men shelter. The guests did the same and smoke the leaves the two men would sell them, and the whole room got filled with thick smoke. The plant leaves were actually marijuana, and accordingly, very soon, everyone started hallucinating, believing they had seen demons and that the other guests wanted to steal the pieces they had bought. Then, people started to run, to cry, to scream, some even mutilated themselves with ink pens, all the while grinning drearily. Not long after, the auction sale turned into a very hellish slaughter during which eveyone grabbed the collection daggers, swords and sabres to kill each other. At the end of the night, the two men had been missing, so were the 300 pieces of the sale, and 8 corpses were found in all the mansion, along with dozens of unconscious people. As Kogoro aks why has nobody ever heard of such a nighmarish case, Oogami tells him it was probably due to the victims' fame end reputation, the horror of the scene and the fact that the auction sale was completely illegal. Some were even powerful and feared politicians and mafiosi. Nobody knew who had killed who, besides. The case was hushed up not to cause irrevocable consequences, and none actually ever found why and how such a scene had took place. Mogi says the two men knew about this and had therefore come up with a very well-thought plan.

The host says he wants the 10 people around to play again the slaughter scene in the mansion, to kill each other for the lure of profit. He says he'll give them a clue : "The night when the two travellers gazed at the sky, the demon went down the castle, and the king ran away with his treasure, the princess shed her tears into the Holy Grail and beseeched forgiveness, and the knight drew his own blood until the very last drop of it". This enigma originated from the tragedy, something the host tried hard to invent. Soda comments on the fact the blood-bath won't take place as none will ever play ball. The host replies they will as they're actually, all of them, already under the influence of the spell he cast. He says when one of them will let out the first cry, the war for treasure will begin, until only one person will eventually find it and go up to the central tower's fourth floor, using the room's computer to let the host know, and the latter will hold to his promise and give the winner half of his treasure along with the way out of the mansion.

All of a sudden, Mogi stands up and starts screaming in pain as if he had been poisoned, laughing and telling the host he hates scavenger hunts, and will try his way alone through the mountains and woods until he finds someone to help him out. As he says so, Oogami abruptly stands up and yells in pain, collapsing on the floor. Mogi says he mimicked his joke and tells him to cut it out, but Hakuba bends over Oogami and confirms his death. It seems that Oogami was poisoned by cyanide. Senma checks the tea he was drinking right before his death with a bronze coin but notes there is no oxidization reaction to cyanide and then says he must have been poisoned by something else. The host then says the die is cast, that Oogami rang the beginning of the game, and he wishes them good luck, hoping they'll stay alive as long as possible. Mogi gets infuriated and grabs the mannequin by its collar, making its head fall down, and revealing audio record tapes whose player is connected to a timer. As Ishihara says the times when she had to bring the dinner were scheduled to a T as well, the detectives deduce the murderer had planned everything, using the audio tape as a timing, and had targeted Oogami from the very beginning, as he had used his voice to record his name and say he was killed. To do so, the murderer must have made sure everything would go as the tape says and that Oogami would die just before the announcement, therefore he's probably one of them.

File 301 - Murder

Conan explains the murderer is probably one of them as he perfectly knew the moment the tape record would tell about Oogami's death, which means the killer had dinner with them all the while choosing the perfect moment to prepare his/her trick and poison Oogami with cyanide in broad daylight, with the best of private eyes next to him/her. He had probably prepared the record and his/her ploy way beforehand, and had to make sure everything would work properly. The poison seems to be neither in the tea, neither in Oogami's cup, neither in the tea which was in his cup. As Ran wonders why Kaito Kid murders people, since it's not the way he usually works, Ishihara starts biting her nails and Hakuba replies he finds it weird as well, and Mogi adds that action precedes desire. He suggests they all go and check if their cars really have exploded, as it may well have been a smokescreen too, and perhaps some cars didn't blow up. Conan notes Oogami has bitten his left hand's thumb nail before dying.

Every car has exploded indeed, and Hakuba tells people he isn't the owner of the burning Mercedes car since his butler gave him a lift to the mansion with his own car. Then it’s probably the mysterious host’s car, the first one on the car park early in the morning. Ishihara remembers her boss had told her to park her car behind the mansion, in front of the back gate. Everyone rush there and they are happy to find the maid’s car hasn’t exploded. Soda thinks there’s something strange with that car which didn’t blow up. Conan suggests they toss coins to decide who will get in the car to go and check if the bridge has really been blown to pieces, for some guests to remain at the mansion just in case. Senma says it’s a brilliant idea and takes a coin first. They flip for it and Mouri, Senma and Mogi get tails and drive to the bridge. Further down the mountain, Conan spots an abandoned car over which roof he notices a huge white X-shaped cross. Conan turns around to Hakuba who smirks mysteriously while Soda suggests everyone come back into the mansion.

Mogi and Mouri watch astounded at the bridge which was completely blown to smithereens. They ask Senma to switch on the car’s parking lights to check out for something, commenting on the fact the killer will probably not call it quits. Suddenly, the car blows up and falls into the gulch, crushing futher down with Senma inside. Mogi smiles in conceit. They run back to the mansion and tell everyone about Senma’s death. Kogoro suggests they split into two groups in order to search the mansion and find the host or a way or another to escape the place. As Hakuba seems to be probably feeding his pet hawk in his room at the moment, Mogi, Kogoro and Conan go on their way while Soda teams up with Ishihara and Ran. Watson, Hakuba’s pet hawk, is actually not being fed and stands over the mansion’s roof with a mysterious package wrapped around his leg.

The three boys find a beautiful piano in a room and Kogoro remarks it’s got some recent scratches on its side, done maybe by Hakuba’s hawk. They find a sheet of paper stuck between the piano’s keys : it is an old parchment-like sheet of paper, used for calligraphy, on which the host’s enigma was printed, implying someone probably needed to have it mass duplicated for some reason, and therefore even used paper intended for calligraphy, to hand them out to as many people as possible, since there weren’t any copy machines some 40-50 years ago, when Karasuma still owned Twilight Mansion. Mogi then comments on the fact the host’s treasure hunt is actually another one’s idea, and he/she may have used this easy-to-see-through story and enigma to "bring some spice" to the evening. Conan remarks a side of the piano is drenched with luminol, which means Soda has probably sprayed some of her chemical on it not long ago. Mogi asks Kogoro to switch off the light and they indeed see something glowing in the dark (just as how luminol works).

  Show spoilers »

Meanwhile, in the washroom, Soda tells Ran to go and check if the maid is still in the corridor waiting for them. Ran finds Ishihara lifeless against the wall and gets anesthetised by Soda who puts a handkerchief with chloroform over her mouth. She then locks Ishihara and Ran in a closet or toilet cabin. In the dark, what Kogoro, Mogi and Conan find is a blood-written message on the piano which seems to have been wiped off long ago, reading « I cracked Karasuma’s enigma’s secret at last. Finally, I’ve found the trump card. » They suddenly realise something, while Soda meets Hakuba in the corridor, who reveals she is the killer, as the latter can’t take the chance to get into a trapped car, and then must have been among those who stayed in the mansion while Mouri, Mogi and Senma were away : Soda, Hakuba, Ran or Ishihara. Hakuba takes aim at Soda with a gun he says she deliberately put under his pillow, to probably have him accused of being the killer. Soda, hiding a small gun in her left hand, says she exactly came to the same conclusion.

Mogi and Mouri hear a gunshot and run to the central tower where it came from, Conan seemingly leaving them. They arrive too late to rescue Hakuba who was shot dead right in the heart. Mouri hears the murderer rushing up the stairs, and chases her. When he finally reaches the computer’s room, he finds Soda stone dead on the floor. Mogi turns up and tells him Soda probably talked with the host on the computer, since she read the bloody message on the piano and deduced where the treasure is. Afterwards, she was about to leave the room when she dropped dead, probably after turning the door knob which was trapped with a poisoned needle which would surge up and sting the person trying to leave the room.

Mogi takes aim at Kogoro with Hakuba's gun, saying if Soda is the murderer, then she can’t have been caught out at her own trap, which means someone else is the murderer, someone who locked his own daughter and the maid in the washroom, and someone who is not Mogi : Kogoro Mouri. Mogi immediately shoots Kogoro dead right through the heart.

File 302 - Sting

Mogi apologises to dead Kogoro, saying one can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. He then lights a cigarette and suddenly drops dead, poisoned, wondering how he came to be killed by cyanide.

  Show spoilers »

THE HOST

From a huge and dark CCTV monitoring room, the mysterious host watches carefully the computer’s room which has turned into a bloody crime scene. He/She gets incensed at none of those detectives’ being able to find out the treasure, killing each other very rapidly instead. Suddenly, the computer’s room’s spy camera, located in the wall lamps, turns off and someone named « The Seventh Detective » types on the computer’s keyboard, asking the host to come and meet him in the dining room as he’s found where the treasure is. The host then leaves and runs towards the dining room, in complete confusion, as none should be alive by now in the mansion and only 6 detectives have been invited to the party. As he/she hesitates before pushing the room’s door, Conan turns up behind him/her and says it can happen sometimes that a murderer fakes their own death in order to walk freely along and kill other people incognito, which is the case here as Furuyo Senma pretended to die in the car explosion but actually survived, and is the true eerie host and murderer.

THE MURDERS

Conan says Senma got off the car after activating the time-lapse explosion, and hid behind bushes, then went back discreetly to the mansion while everybody thought she had perished in the bombing. Senma answers she actually spotted the bomb mechanism in the car and moved out just in time to avoid death ; she got seriously dizzied though and it took her a great deal of time to walk back to the mansion ; she’s arrived just now. As she claims only fate could decide which person would get a tails and get into the car, Conan replies she did have the intention of flipping for it and already had a coin in her pocket. She put it tails over the back of her hand and hid it with her other hand while tossing the coin she picked among Conan’s ones. She left that coin falling on the ground and concealed it with her foot while pretending to grab it and put it over her hand, but actually just revealed the coin over her hand afterwards, ensuring she would get into the car and fake her death. She had set a bomb in the maid’s car way beforehand, proving she’s the host, as she’d actually come earlier to the mansion, when none had arrived yet. The fact is Senma again resorted to the 10-yen coin she had used earlier to test the oxidization reaction in Oogami’s tea.

Conan explains Senma had the perfect timing and opportunity to kill Oogami, and only Oogami, as she had put cyanide on the upper part of the handle of everyone’s cup, which means everyone could have been poisoned when connecting their right or left thumb to their mouth. Only Oogami died because he had the twitch of biting his nails when tense or reflecting on something, which occurred when the mannequin told the spooky story about Karasuma and the enigma. Oogami had told Ishihara to serve dishes or tea in such order, something Senma knew and then she also knew when the maid would bring tea and teacups, and she set beforehand the mannequin’s voice to tell the story at that moment, and to announce Oogami’s death not long after, as she knew he would die very soon. Senma says Hakuba had told everyone to wipe their cutlery and so just in case (which actually was useless), but Conan replies they hadn’t thought about the secret place where poison had really been left, and adds Oogami didn’t do it as he and Senma were accomplices and were the real organisers and hosts of the scavenger hunt. Therefore, he didn’t expect Senma would kill him. She probably recorded words on the tape that Oogami hadn’t told her to when they planned the evening, explaining why Oogami got tense at that moment.

The Mercedes was a car either Oogami or Senma had drove up to the mansion, in order to make Ishihara believe the host had been in the mansion since the early morning. But in order to leave the place and come back afterwards as a « guest », Oogami or Senma imperatively needed an accomplice which had hid and parked further down the mountain to give a lift back to the other. Senma claimed her car had broken down because she was waiting for Kogoro Mouri to come, needing to check if that man she wasn’t acquainted with would smoke during the evening and then endanger himself, since the poison on the cup would end up on his fingers and kill him if he ever connected his fingers to his lips when smoking. Which is why she asked him not to smoke during the party as she allegedly hated it and didn’t want him to die. Mogi died because he was ignorant of that fact and lit a cigarette with poison all over his fingers. Senma though had planned with Oogami for another person to die on that night : Ishihara. Indeed, Oogami or Senma had spotted, during the weird job interview, Ishihara’s tic of biting her nails, and hired her immediately, intending to use her own twitch to cause her death, just like Oogami, since she would get poison on her fingers when laying the cups or clearing them. Which is why Ishihara was the only one chosen : they were expecting someone with that twitch for the job.

Senma killed her accomplice Oogami and faked her death in order to watch the detectives killing each other – or surviving – while looking for and finding the mansion’s treasure. She attracted the detectives here hoping they would eventually find it, lured by Kid and the strange enigma. Senma needed to have the secret code deciphered and was even ready to kill them all right after, including herself, explaining why guns had been put under each guest’s pillows and the presence of the poisoned needle inside the computer’s room, when the detective knowing where the treasure is would leave the room after telling it to Senma, and die straight away.

THE MOTIVES

Senma wanted to do the exact same thing Renya Karasuma did 40 years ago : attracting people to his mansion, hoping they would find his treasure, then killing them all. This happened just before his death and way before the secret auction sale. Conan says he deduced it when reading at the end of the bloody message on the piano the name « Kyosuke Senma ». Senma confirms Kyosuke to be her father, a famous archeologist who had been invited to the mansion, on Renya Karasuma’s request, 40 years ago. Karasuma had inherited a fabulous treasure from his mother, along with her Twilight Mansion, and he had recently found a clue hinting at the fact that the treasure could be hidden somewhere in the mansion. Karasuma’s mother had told his son to do anything he could, even sacrificing his own life, to find it, as she had never found it neither. And Karasuma, aged nearly 100 and fearing for his upcoming death, asked an archeologist to come along and do the same, telling him and expecting the same from him. Senma’s dad got really well paid by Karasuma, but some day he vanished into thin air, only sending Senma’s family a letter and his last wages. Senma read again the letter some day, and when putting it under a lamp’s light, she realised it had been pierced with tiny needle holes, hinting at a secret code. Senma deciphered it and understood what happened to her father : Karasuma had actually invited a very large group of archeologists that he expected to retrieve his treasure, only giving them the secret code he had in his possession, the enigma with the king, princess and knight. She read Karasuma completely lost patience and killed the archeologists one after the other, as they had still not found it and he was on the brink of dying. Karasuma had the intention to silence everyone without exception anyway, even if the treasure were found. Senma didn’t tell the police about it as twenty years had passed now when she read the letter again. Karasuma had died long ago, his family had slipped off, after losing all their prestige, and Twilight Mansion had gone through other hands since then.

Two years ago, Senma met Oogami and made the mistake to tell him about it, and the latter thought about an improbable idea : he quickly found where the mansion was, and invited Senma to search for the treasure with him there, to no avail. Afterwards, they ran into debts to acquire the mansion and search it deeper. Up against it, Oogami told Senma about inviting some other great detectives to the mansion, in order to have them find it in their place. Oogami thought about a « And then they were none » death game, during which he and Senma would fake their death and wait for the others to kill one another while racing for the treasure. Oogami said he would pretend Kaito Kid had organised the whole thing and were the serial killer, something which would attract whichever private eye. At first, Senma didn’t want to kill people for real, but Oogami said it would be more exciting if they were really in danger, if the maid was really killed due to her twitch, and this would even prompt them more to search for the treasure, in order to survive, and they would lay all responsibility on Kid. But Oogami never considered Senma would kill him using his own twitch, in order to do just the same as what happened to her father 40 years ago, and to punish Oogami in a way for his cruelty.

Oogami got tense and bit his nail as Senma had recorded some words he didn’t expect on the tape: Oogami had in fact planned to kill the maid after dinner, but Senma had planned the record to be right when they would be having tea instead, therefore killing Oogami. The maid was supposed to die after dinner, when she would have cleared the table and come back into the room to listen to the spooky story, bite her nail, and die immediately. Ishihara wasn’t here during the story as it was still tea time, then she couldn’t die straight away and Senma had done it on purpose to murder Oogami first instead. Senma also killed Oogami because he had lied to her and intended to kill everybody including herself, in order to keep the treasure only for himself; he expected everyone to kill each other with the guns he had put under each guest’s pillow. Senma suppressed him then to leave more time and opportunities for the detectives to find the treasure, whereas killing them all would have thwarted all of her plans. But actually she notes everything ended up just like 40 years ago.

THE ENIGMA AND TREASURE

Though, Conan says Kyosuke Senma had actually deciphered the code : Conan indeed explains her it’s weird there’s only one clock in such a huge mansion, in the dining room. Climbing on the hearth, Conan reveals « The night when the two travellers gazed at the sky » means both hour and minute hands must be turned clockwise (or unclockwise) up to « 12 » which is midnight, as if both hands were pointing and looking at the midnight sky. Kyosuke Senma had left a bloody message on the piano, referring to the « trump card », which implies the enigma has to do with a card game then.

The king with his treasure refers to the king of diamonds, the princess pouring tears into the Holy Grail refers to the queen of hearts, and the knight stabbing himself refers to the jack of spades. This means to move both clock hands towards where the card faces are looking : left for the king of diamonds and queen of hearts, right for the jack of spades. You then have, according to the direction, to move the hands as many five-minute intervals forward as it corresponds to each card’s value : 13 for the king of diamonds, 12 for the queen of hearts, 11 for the jack of spades, in that order.

Conan does so and suddenly the clock comes off the wall and falls on the floor, and its layer of lacquer then gets chipped off on its upper part, disclosing gold under it. Conan realises this heavy clock is in solid gold, and Senma laments her father and so many other archeologists lost their lives for a mere little round item covered in gold.

Senma can’t tell Conan how to escape Twilight Mansion as she reveals there’s actually no way to reach civilisation again ; she intended to commit suicide in the mansion after finding or not the treasure and after everyone had been missing or died, and lied to Oogami to lure him into preparing their ploys.

THE REVELATION

Senma overhears people behind her saying that they were convinced she would never tell the truth about how to leave the place, even to a seven-year-old boy. She turns around awe-stricken and realises all the guests faked their death just like her (except Oogami of course ; using ketchup as fake blood, imitating death or fainting, etc.). Mogi survived even if he smoked as he had found out about Senma’s trick with poison way before just daring to light a cigarette. Ishihara seems alive too, implying Senma probbaly put poison on cups after she had laid them on the table, and she didn’t clear it afterwards as Oogami had suddenly passed away. They reveal Conan had advised them to play dead, while he, as a plain kid, would confront the murderer who wouldn’t mind telling a kid the truth and how to escape the manor (as she might have thought none would ever believe a kid and actually none could escape). They also pretended to kill each other not to be killed by Senma if they confronted her or revealed her ploy aloud. The only « bad thing » they did was to really put Ran and Ishihara to sleep, fearing they might not stand the fake death scene or screw up the plan.

They’d known Senma was the murderer since the tails-or-heads thing, when she hurried to pick Conan’s coin first, doing it between her index and middle fingers only, because it was a bronze/copper one and if she or anyone had touched it with their poisoned fingers, there would have all noticed the oxidization reaction and would have accordingly discovered the truth. They realised Senma was very suspicious then, and found out about how the poison was given when noting Oogami had bitten his nail before dying. Senma stares at Conan and gets it that he fooled her into telling him the truth and disclosing herself.

As everyone wonder how to leave the mansion, they hear the sound of a roaring police helicopter Hakuba had called : he had in fact pasted the huge white X-shaped cross on the roof of Ishihara’s car before they left, in order for his Watson hawk to spot it when aloft, tracking down the car, and when the car blew up, Watson probably just followed the road and found another car, and someone may have found the message tied and wrapped around its leg, and called the police, telling them to go and help the survivors. Hakuba didn’t tell them earlier about it as he wasn’t sure if Watson would come back or even find someone on his way, as hawks don’t usually react like homing pigeons do. Conan overhears a strange but huge cracking sound standing out against the helicopter’s blades’ humming sound, probably originating from the mansion.

As everyone leave Twilight Mansion aboard the helicopter at dawn, Ran comments on Kid’s absence after all, while Senma tells Mogi she chose to fake her death as she thought these brilliant detectives would surely find what she failed to discover with Oogami. As she comments on the fact she’s been bewitched by Karasuma, she rushes to the helicopter’s door and leaps into the void. Kogoro leaps as well and catches her, revealing he is Kid in disguise, hang-gliding. Kid says to Senma she’s too old and mature to play that kind of acrobatics, but she calls him a moron, saying she actually saved him : Conan and Hakuba knew that Mouri was Kid and especially Conan was targeting Mouri with his stungun watch in the helicopter. Kid actually made the mistake not to smoke a single cigarette at the mansion, even far away from Senma and before dinner, while Kogoro Mouri is a notorious heavy smoker. She leapt both to die and to apologise for using and soiling Kid’s name to attract the detectives to the mansion, and then having him look like a murderer to the others’ eyes. Kid says Hakuba and Conan are just like an old mistress he tries to avoid systematically as much as possible. He adds that he gives up on Karasuma’s treasure as it is way too big for his small rucksack, and, saying so, he ties Senma to a string connecting her to the helicopter, escaping once more, and leaving her and the people aloft beholding Twilight Mansion’s walls and painting crumbling and going to pieces, disclosing a wonderful golden manor, shining like the sun, explaining the term « Twilight/Sunset ». The clock had actually set off a mechanism, that suits very well Renya Karasuma, who « always sees and wants more and more ».

Ran still wonders where her dad is, as Kogoro wakes up in the gas station, almost unclothed and tied up to the station’s mechanic, wondering what the heck is going on…

People

Furuyo Senma
	Victim (explosion) 63 years old Detective

Harufumi Mogi
	Victim (poison) 39 years old Detective

Shukuzen Ogami
	Victim (poison) 51 years old Detective

Aki Ishihara
	Victim (kidnapped) 23 years old Maid

Ikumi Soda
	Victim (poison) 29 years old Detective

Renya Karasuma
	Millionaire Previous mansion owner Died 50 years ago

Kyosuke Senma
	Furuyo's late father Archeologist

Watson
	Saguru's pet hawk

Genta's Shadow Case

File 303 - Genta's Misfortune

Genta has been acting weird at school lately. He is hiding under his futon at home, and doesn't eat his lunch instead of racing to finish first which is worrying his teacher Kobayashi. When he leaves school, Genta climbs over the wall and runs, like he is trying to lose someone. When the Detective Boys confront him, he tells them someone is trying to kill him. Earlier, he had heard the sound of someone's footsteps keeping pace with him in a tunnel. Later he was pushed off a bridge, and a burning car hurtled towards him. As he was telling the Detective Boys this, they reached a place outside a store where Genta likes to play a Yaiba Game machine. A large bolt falls nearby, barely alerting the Detective Boys in time to avoid part of the store's "BAKER" sign hurtling to the ground. Conan examines the support cable, and determines it had been deliberately cut and someone was indeed after Genta's life. They go to a burger restaurant and Genta reveals the man he thinks is trying to kill him is the purse snatcher the police are after. Genta had seen the man sometime earlier, before he was a wanted burglar, but had forgotten where it was. Genta does remember a golden haired man was with him when he saw the thief. Genta also explains that he went to a crime scene where the snatcher struck five days ago and saw his golden-haired witness in the crowd. He took the witness to the police and told them the story, but the witness denied seeing the thief. Genta later gets a mysterious phone call: "If you tell anyone that you saw me, I will kill you!! You, your family, and everybody that you know!" Genta tries to recall where he saw the thief. He remembers the witness sitting beside him, but doesn't remember the thief sitting down. Genta was sleepy at the time. The things he remembers about the thief are that he was holding a cigarette in his left hand, meaning he is left handed. He was also wearing a tee-shirt with a skull and the numbers 202 in digital clock-like numerals. Genta notices one of the customers at the burger place has a similar tee-shirt, only with the numbers 1999 instead. Conan asks the man where he got his shirt, and the man tells him it is from the Bones clothing store. The Detective Boys run to find the place, but unfortunately the criminal had followed them into the restaurant and overheard everything.

At the shop, the salesperson explains that they sold a variety of shirts like that with different text such as "Escape", "Help", and "1999" because of the doomsday prediction in 2000, but none that say 202. The salesperson doesn't remember anyone unusual either. Genta does remember a few more details about the thief though. The thief was reading a newspaper, the place allowed smoking, and Genta never took his eyes off of him meaning it was a place where it wouldn't be unusual to watch someone without making them uncomfortable. From those clues, Conan realizes the answer.

File 304 - Genta's Trap

To avoid alerting the thief who is watching nearby, Conan whispers something to Genta. After that the detective boys splits up and Genta is let alone. Looking at his reflection in a shop window, he realizes something and runs to a department store.

People

Man
	Purse snatcher

Kamiyo Someda
	Blond guy Witness

Pottery Class Case

File 305 - On the Bottom...

Ran, Sonoko, and Conan attend a pottery class. Sonoko wants to make pottery for Makoto, while Ran wants to make some for Shinichi. A man is strangled to death with a necktie and found in a closet.

File 306 - Surrounded by Hints

Conan knows who the culprit is, to the point of confronting the culprit when they're all alone, but still has no evidence. He tries to find evidence to prove it was him.

People

Muneyuki Mino
	62 years old Potter

Kikuyo Kasama
	29 years old Muneyuki's assistant

Motoo Mino
	Victim (strangled) 31 years old Office worker Married into Muneyuki's family

Cover in other countries

China

Finland

France

Germany

Hong Kong

Indonesia

Italy

Korea

Malaysia (Chinese)

Malaysia (Malay)

Norway

Rep. of China (Taiwan)

Singapore (English)

Sweden

United States

Vietnam

See also

• Manga
• Volume 21-30
• Detective Conan