Volume 32

Chronology
‹ Volume 31	List of Chapters • List of Cases	Volume 33 ›

Volume 32
Information
Release date:	April 18, 2001
Chapters:
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-126162-0
Publisher:	Shogakukan
English release date:	November 17, 2009
English ISBN:	ISBN 1-4215-2200-4
English Publisher:	Viz Media
Featured Detective & Keyhole
Mike Hammer Goro Otaki
Aoyama's death & Conan side images

Volume 32 was released on April 18, 2001 in Japan.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Heiji Hattori Kazuha Toyama Goro Otaki Heizo Hattori Ginshiro Toyama Yoko Okino Osamu Kenzaki Detective Samonji (Tv) Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Shinichi Kudo (photo) Ai Haibara Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Miwako Sato Yumi Miyamoto Shuichi Akai Sonoko Suzuki Ninzaburo Shiratori Tomoaki Araide Kazunobu Chiba Mrs. Sato

Gadgets

Gadgets
Earring Cellphone

Tiger Scroll Case

File 318 - The Ruler's Treasure

The shopkeeper actually has Kazuha's wallet and the latter is overjoyed. She says there are plenty of charms in it in order to bring good luck around her, yet she adds it doesn't always work as the shopkeeper comments on a murder which has just occurred near the store. Otaki and the police arrive and Kogoro has some empathy for the inspector who has to solve two murders in two days. Kogoro says he quickly found the identity of the victim since the latter wore the paulownia flower badge emblem of Hideyoshi, then it's Yuji Kato, who plays Hideyoshi in the game trip. The four other participants introduce themselves to Otaki and confirm Kato's death, and explain Otaki the game. Kato had been missing and they all went and looked for him, hoping to find him very quickly as he wore a big and very noticeable red woolen jumper. They never expected him to die, and don't know at all the reason why Kato committed suicide by setting himself alight. Otaki asks why Kogoro thinks Kato killed himself, and he answers that Kato deliberately put on such a flammable jumper, and climbed up the roof, despite heavy rain, in order to commit suicide in a rather spectacular way.

Meanwhile, Heiji ties a rope around Conan and cranes him down over the roof, in order to hold him since the roof is dangerous and slippery. Conan investigates the place where Kato started to burn, and notices some small charred remains, along with a lighter, and under the lighter he notes there is a kind of cone-shaped mark. The four participants discuss Kato's death, and Katagiri says none can really know what one truly hides in their deeper self, and Kasuya adds Kato chose to die as a war hero on the Osaka Castle. Heiji shows Kato's lighter to Otaki, but refuses to believe the suicide theory : when someone sets themselves on fire, they don't usually take the time to close their lighter and put it leisurely over the roof. It's very likely that the lighter could have closed itself when falling from Kato's hand on the roof, but then why is it on the flat part of the roof, why didn't it slide along the curved part, and then fell down somewhere on the roof or on the ground ? Moreover, something cylindrical had been placed on the flat part of the roof before it started raining, and then someone removed that item, and put the lighter instead, explaing the cone-shaped mark. This item certainly has to do with the small charred remains over the roof.

The forensics show Otaki Kato's burned belongings, among which a small piece of burned earthenware, and a burned scroll. When Otaki says the ideogram "dragon" is featured on the top right corner of the scroll, the four participants suddenly get tense. Kazuha says the piece of earthenware maybe has to do with the similar ones found on corpses that were discovered at Osaka Castle recently and thirteen years ago, both completely burned. She goes on telling Heiji about the conversation she heard in the car yesterday, explaining the 848, the location of the bodies, and so on. As she tells about "the treasure of the mortals", the other participants listen carefully and with a certain excitement. Conan tells Heiji the inner part of the earthenware has shiny sparkles, which might be gold, but doesn't seem to be very worthy. Both detectives try to think more deeply about the case, and are reminded of Kato's dying message with the umbrella. They reflect on the link between umbrella/rain and Osaka Castle. Heiji says Osaka Castle's Sakura Gate has a stone called Tako on its left and right, and there is also a wall protecting its central tower, with a stone called Ryuko. And just like the Tako stone, the Ryuko stone, when it's raining, shows a kind of mirage where it's possible to make out a tiger and dragon.

Conan and Heiji suddenly realise something then, and snatch the scroll from Otaki's hands to wet it under the rain : their idea turns out to be the right one as the water discloses a hidden message on the scroll : a kind of double-circle item and its measurements (with old medieval units) on the left, and an illegible message on the right. Conan and Heiji believe there is indeed a hidden treasure somewhere in the castle, which greatly arouses Fukushima's curiosity, while Wakisaka is examining a piece of earthenware he seems to own, and Kasuya calls someone to which he says they should wait a moment and stay where they are for now, as the police seems to still have a long way to go. He adds they shouldn't worry as the item in question is close to hand, therefore no need to change their plans. Katagiri, as to her, mysteriously smirks at the whole situation.

File 319 - Back to the Past...

Heiji and Conan found out part of the truth about the treasure, and Heiji reveals that the pieces of earthenware found on the three victims, and that contain gold, are actually made of sand mixed with gold. He adds that rainwater actually disclosed the truth about the scroll : it was composed of several sheets stuck together one over the other, and only wetting it could enable the true scriptures to appear. Heiji says it's just like the Tako or Ryuko stones : when rainwater comes in contact with them, some dragon and tiger shapes come out, due to wetting. Though, Otaki says most of the scroll's instructions went into ashes. And Kogoro doesn't get the meaning of the double-circle shape on the scroll, and Ran and Kazuha say it might be a flask, an item which is representative of Hideyoshi's notorious alcoholism. Therefore, the piece of earthenware may be a flask's, in which gold dust would have been stored. As Kogoro says that, according to the measurements, the flask is quite small (30 centimetres), which makes for a rather tiny treasure, Heiji underlines that, indeed, a single flask of gold dust would not be enough, but what about that legend according to which Hideyoshi would, after each victory, tie a little flask to his spear, and it is said that his spear was considered as the symbol of his riches, since it would then carry not less than 1000 flasks each filled with gold dust, the "Bunch of the 1000 Flasks", which would resemble his paulownia emblem, with a huge flask on the top, the tiny others below, and several ribbons fluttering in the wind. If the scroll leads to the 1000 flasks Hideyoshi could have hidden in his castle after his death, then that really makes for a colossal wealth, not forgetting the added value of 500-year-old famous golden items.

Heiji supposes that, given three people were killed in the same way, each having a piece of flask in his pocket, and probably looking for the treasure, especially since Kato had a scroll, this means someone close to them and mad about Hideyoshi and his treasure could have killed them, in order to be the sole owner of the treasure, and, saying so, Heiji casts a suspect glance at the participants. Kazuha adds her father and Heiji's figured out the truth even without the scroll since one of the fragments Toyama had with him and had found on one of the first corpses had the shape of a jar opening, and moreover the 848 number could lead to the flask being the 848th out of the 1000. If they found gold dust inside, then it's perfectly normal they came up to that conclusion. This can't only be a myth then, since it is said Hideyoshi had poured a great quantity of gold dust into his castle's wells in order to purify the water, and Ieyasu would shudder at imagining his rival's enormous riches. Hideyoshi though made the whereabouts of his treasure secret as he concealed the clues that could lead to it : sticking the sheets of the scroll together, mixing gold dust with sand inside the flasks, etc.

Toyama comes along and interrupts Heiji to add that the dragon scroll inevitably refers to the tiger's one, since just like both Tako and Ryuko stones show a dragon and a tiger, there are actually two scrolls, one for the dragon to show part of the clue to the treasure, and one for the tiger to show the other part, and it's necessary to wet the tiger's one just as well to figure out the truth. Kazuha says she's the one who called her dad, as the Prefectural Police is very close, and she wants her father to investigate the case for Heiji to leave the crime scene at last, and come with her and the others to have a bite to eat. Besides, Toyama knows more about the previous similar cases than Heiji does. The latter starts yelling at Kazuha just like usual, but quickly stops as Toyama coldly glowers at him, and rather suggests she should go and wait for him there. Kazuha then leaves in anger, but turns around discreetly to cast a glance at Heiji and behold, with a certain loving interest, her friend's deep and passionate concentration on the case. The game participants ask if they can do the same, and then come back, as they haven't eaten a single thing since noon, and they want to change clothes due to rain. Otaki agrees to let them go as their hotel is near, but orders them to come back to the Castle as quick as possible once they're done. Toyama suddenly turns around as he recognises a voice he heard a long time ago, and which has to do with a bloody crime scene with banknotes all over. Toyama then gives Otaki a secret order and the latter complies and goes away, while Toyama gives a phone call to Heizo.

At the noodles restaurant close to the castle, Ran has Kazuha own up to having actually called her father to increase Heiji's interest in the case, and having the pleasure then to behold his lovely face when he's overfond of something. Ran says Kazuha's just as stupid as she is, since Ran also loves seeing Shinichi's passionate face during cases, though it gets on her nerves somehow. Ran realises Conan is not with them and probably remained at the castle. That same Conan finds a burned battery near the place where Kato had fallen, and he and Heiji realise Kato's death is actually not a suicide but a well-performed murder. Ran and Kazuha quickly leave the restaurant after eating since Ran is worried about Conan, and Kazuha tries to comfort her saying police agents are everywhere due to the recent crime, and he's not in danger, and no murders can occur any longer. Though, they notice in front of her Maho Katagiri who sets herself alight with a lighter and throws herself into the river. Ran and Kazuha rush to the bridge's guardrail and see her burning corpse in the river, and they start screaming and calling the police. Suddenly, they spot someone spying on them from behind, but the person runs away.

Katagiri's body is fished out, half-burned, and Otaki notices she actually died of a blunt force trauma, probably when her head violently hit one of the bridge's pillars when she jumped, leading them to believe she indeed committed suicide. However, Heiji harshly questions Kazuha, saying it's impossible she killed herself, and that the runaway person they saw must be the one who killed her from far, using a kind of trick. The girls though deny it as impossible. Heiji gets infuriated and starts searching the victim's corpse, despite this being strictly forbidden, and suddenly Heizo grabs him by the collar and punches him violently in the face.

File 320 - Naniwa Kanjinchō

Heiji doesn't get why his father punched him, and the latter answers his son is completely unable to keep a cool head, instead just annoying police, he's nothing but a vain sprog thinking he's a great detective but actually just destroying paramount exhibits by searching a corpse in such a disrespectful way. Heizo then tells his son to clear off, as the police will try to prevent the murders Heiji was unable just to foresee. As Otaki tries to step in, Toyama holds him back, asking him if he did follow his orders to have a certain person shadowed by his men. Hearing that, Otaki figures out why Heizo acted that way with Heiji : in order to protect his son. Otaki tells Heizo about the murders, adding that the forensics actually found nothing but Kato's fingerprints on his lighter. He underlines there's no point thinking about anything else but suicide, unless they find any other elements. Heizo orders him to leave a couple of agents dealing with the case, and tells the other ones, including himself, Toyama and Otaki, to leave the place since police have more serious cases to investigate than such base ones. Otaki stands flabbergasted while Toyama can't believe Heizo really "has the intention to do it". Meanwhile, a mysterious suspect is glaring at the police officers from among the crowd.

Otaki tries to convince Heiji to stop sulking and being so sad, since his father did it "just because he's infuriated at the fact two people were killed near the police headquarters". While Kogoro says this is not a reason to punch him in the face, Kazuha says maybe Heizo did it due to what she heard in the car, the fact that the murderer could be that serial bank robber who started to operate just after the first discovery of the burned out body thirteen years ago. Those 5 bank heists were responsible for the death of not less than seven people, and the robber and his dangerous gang are still walking free. Kogoro understands and pokes fun at the situation of a caring father going as far as beating up his son in order to protect him from a case which is even more dangerous than he thinks. Heiji gets up and says he would almost cry about this situation too, actually cry about his father's utter stupidity, since hitting him made him even more eager to looking for the true murderer, and he adds he's not as cowardly as Minamoto no Yoshitsune, who refused to fight back after his cousin's humiliation.

Conan thinks about it, and wonders why Heizo beat up his son, knowing this would prompt him even more to disobey. Heiji says Katagiri didn't commit suicide, and asks Otaki to have a look at Katagiri's coat's right side, where they spot three strange but similar small blood marks. This probably means Katagiri was bashed by her attacker, and her blood splashed on the latter, who left three blood marks of "something" from his clothes on Katagiri's coat while carrying her body. This also means she was probably already dead when Kazuha and Ran saw her, though the girls deny it absolutely, since she was moving as if she suffered from fire. Anyway, Heiji says the three participants are the most suspicious ones since two victims out of the four were from their own tour group, and Heiji and Otaki question them as they arrive at the Gokuraku Bridge, wondering what's happened. Fukushima wonders why she committed suicide, and Otaki says suicide is just a possibility. Kasuya declares he went to have a snack in a close-by bar, while Wakisaka did the same but not at the same place, and Fukushima went back to Nanayari Hotel to change clothes and come back right after. He was with Katagiri but underlines he would have stayed with her if he had known what was about to occur. As Kogoro hears the girls say Kato and Katagiri might have been "ordered" to kill themselves, he turns to Wakisaka, saying that "Nobunaga" could have ordered them to die...

Kasuya steps in, saying Fukushima could have used Mitsuhide's three minutes to switch roles with any of the other characters and order something just as well. Kasuya also emphasizes that, being Ieyasu, he can't have ordered such a thing. Though, Wakisaka and Fukushima believe it impossible that someone just kill themselves on orders from anybody. What's more, Katagiri had the role of an observer, and then she would have certainly been more suspicious than usual, and it's just unlikely to think they kept on playing the game even though one of them had died before their eyes. The forensics tell Otaki they've found another fragment on Katagiri, along with a photograph showing five people standing around the dragon's scroll, including younger Kato and Katagiri, implying they know each other. None seems to know who are the three other people on the picture except the younger Hirano, the trip's planner, who was supposed to come with them but had a last-minute hitch which had him postpone his coming. The three participants say Hirano should be the first one to be questioned if the serial killer has a connection with the trip, and they tell Otaki the name of Hirano's website, before going back to their hotel.

Conan believes the person Kazuha and Ran saw on the bridge has to be the murderer, though he still can't figure out how Katagiri was killed since the girls saw her suffering from fire before leaping into the void. Both detective boys deduce the culprit left blood zipper marks on Katagiri, yet all three participants wear clothes with zippers, and Conan wonders what could be the reason why the murderer changed clothes before and after his deed. And eventually, he and Heiji find out something interesting. The wind then starts to pick up and Ran's umbrella flies away in the air, and at last the detectives understand their mistakes and discover the whole truth. Kazuha tells Otaki and co that Heiji seemed to have found out who the murderer is, and he's quickly run away with Conan. Both boys indeed rush into the city to try and find the three participants. Conan seems to have phoned the hotel and gotten confirmation that one of the participants at least is innocent since he directly went back to the hotel, while the two others didn't.

Heiji fears the killer might murder another person, and Conan says indeed it's the case, since the police will quickly find out something went wrong with the "suicides", and thus there's only little time left for the killer to assassinate his last victim. They suddenly spot Kasuya and deduce "he probably wants to erase the evidence of his guilt". Conan decides to call the police but Heiji tells him to hang up : police will probably have the murderer fly away, whereas a deduction show from two kids won't scare him and will lead him to confess more easily.

Saying so, they start tailing Kasuya, but are completely unaware that they are being followed by a gang of dangerous crooks.

File 321 - The Sad Tiger Scroll

Heiji and Conan notice Kasuya enters a strange warehouse, while Conan's got the feeling they are being watched for and followed. Indeed, as they enter the warehouse too, they don't realise the gangsters are just nipping at their heels. Conan prepares his stungun wristwatch while Heiji keeps an eye on Kasuya's moves. Suddenly, Conan is discreetly abducted by an unknown assailant in the dark, without Heiji's noticing it, and the latter says he'll go first after Kasuya, and Conan will follow him once he's done with relieving himself. Kasuya knows he's being tracked by Heiji but pretends not being aware of it, and keeps on climbing up the stairs, at the top of which he meets...

  Show spoilers »

...Shigehiko Wakisaka who was waiting for him as planned. Wakisaka says the item is inside a big tools box, and Kasuya goes on searching for it, Wakisaka advising him to use the big flashlight next to the box, that will "give him some good light" in order to find the tiger's scroll. Heiji steps in and tells Kasuya not to switch it on, unless he wants to end up just like Kato did. Heiji reveals Wakisaka to be the serial killer who murdered Kato and Katagiri by both setting them alight and having it look like a suicide. Wakisaka, just like with Kasuya, enticed his victims with the tiger's scroll. He told Kato he had hidden the scroll under a tile of the castle's roof. Kato would ceratinly go and look for it by night, when nobody would be around and be able to spot him. Though, he needed some light and used his lighter first, only to find something better than this light : a big flashlight, which had been placed here beforehand by Wakisaka, a very special "bomblight" which exploded as soon as Kato switched it on, setting fire to his woolen jumper, and killing him afterwards. As Kato had placed his lighter on the exact place where the cylindrical lamp was (accounting for the strange shape on the roof, and the charred remains), and actually expected to retrieve it afterwards, the police would then believe Kato had committed suicide, as they would find the lighter with his fingerprints on the roof after his death, just like Wakisaka had planned. The burned battery Conan found was actually the flashlight's.

Later on, Wakisaka had Katagiri wait for him at Gokuraku Bridge to discuss something very important, and had asked her to wear a large coat, and he actually disguised as Katagiri, the large coat concealing most of his man's body, and then he bashed her with a kind of cinder block, and carried her up to the guardrail. There, he dumped her head first into the river, poured gas on her back, and then waited for a witness to come along. Actually, Wakisaka was wearing a fireproof diving suit - covering the whole body up to the head - under "Katagiri's clothes", and when Kazuha and Ran turned up, he set himself alight, knowing he wouldn't get hurt at all, bent over the guardrail and pretended to suffer, dropped his lighter on Katagiri's gased body in the river to set it on fire, and then dived into the river, and quickly swam and hid under the bridge's pillars. Therefore, when the girls would come up, they would only see Katagiri's burning corpse, having allegedly killed herself, and would never imagine there was another person under the bridge. Moreover, Wakisaka had left Katagiri's shoes at the guardrail, to add more realism to her "suicide". Also, people would have thought her head injury was due to hitting the bridge's pillar when falling, and Wakisaka perfectly knew that. His wetsuit allowed him to escape burning but also wetting, since he came directly afterwards to the crime scene without being wet at all. The suit's zipper though got bloodied by Katagiri's, and this accounts for the three marks when he carried her. He then swam again up to a safe place, removed his suit and fake Katagiri's clothes, and put on his right clothes again, and eventually joined the crowd and mingled with it.

Though, Kasuya says Wakisaka probably didn't really mind having witnesses to check Katagiri's suicide after all, since none would walk along the bridge since a murder had taken place previously close to the castle, but Ran's and Kazuha's presence helped him a lot in the end. Yet, Heiji says Wakisaka had also planned for a witness to come : he had called Fukushima to come along the bridge, pretending he was from the police, and that he needed his help to prevent maybe Katagiri from killing herself for instance. Fukushima then ran away after seeing actually things were not as he was told, and the girls believed someone was spying on them and escaped. Heiji and Conan knew it was Fukushima since he immediately said Katagiri had died by setting her alight, while he's supposed not to have listened to Otaki's account of events yet before saying so. Wakisaka needed a witness to confirm suicide, as otherwise people and especially police would have thought a killer had set her ablaze and that she had to leap into the water to put it out. Wakisaka had asked Kato to wear that woolen and nylon jumper and Katagiri to wear that large flammable coat in order to spot them more easily during the tour, but in fact to have them burn more rapidly.

The evidence of the murders are actually the zipper marks : there is some kind of round shape next to the zipper shape, and that round shape is Wakisaka's game badge : there's probably some of Katagiri's blood on it, and it's quite invisible since the badge's colours are very dark - this means Wakisaka didn't zip his suit fully and properly. Wakisaka ripped into Kato, Katagiri, almost Kasuya, and also Hirano : Heiji asked Agasa to search for Hirano's wherebaouts, and he discovered that his website hadn't been updated for three weeks, implying something had happened to him. Indeed, he was burned alive, maybe with the same trick used for Kato or Katagiri, by Wakisaka, very recently, in the castle's outer walls. Hirano was about to meet the tour group after his meeting with Wakisaka, explaining why actually he "didn't come due to a last-minute hitch". Wakisaka confesses to his three murders, along with the fourth attempt, in order to avenge his grandfather Masakiyo's death. Masakiyo was a big fan of Hideyoshi, and he was the one holding the dragon's scroll in the middle of Katagiri's picture, surrounded by Hirano, Kato, Katagiri and another man. Masakiyo had found the dragon's scroll and gathered a team of experts to try and find Hideyoshi's treasure. In the end, he decided to give up and donate the scroll to the National Musuem. He went to Osaka thirteen years ago to try and convince his team to give up with the treasure. Though, not only his comrades refused it but also got in a fume when they discovered Masakiyo had concealed to them the existence of a flask's fragment he thought useless, and they decided to burn him alive in the castle's moat, after stealing his scroll. Wakisaka then searched for his late grandfather's comrades one after the other with only a picture as sole clue, the same picture he put in Katagiri's pocket to probably scare Kasuya when he would see it.

Wakisaka also discovered the unknown man on the picture had completely changed face, name and life during all those years, and Heiji realises this man is Kasuya. It's too late though, as Kasuya suddenly takes aim at Heiji and Wakisaka with a gun, and the gangsters emerge from the dark and also take aim at them, cornering them completely. Kasuya says he had very good reasons to silence Masakiyo, and had actually thought about killing Katagiri as well, as she had discovered who he really was during the trip. Heiji says if they kill Wakisaka they will never be able to get hold of Hideyoshi's treasure. Kasuya answers he knows Wakisaka didn't bring the scroll, and he'll go and search his home afterwards. He orders them to switch on the flashlight, to make the police believe later on that Heiji had come and fought with the murderer, and they ended up perishing in an explosion together. Kasuya allows them a last answer to his question : how did Heiji figure out Wakisaka was the murderer, as neither him nor Kasuya nor Fukushima had valid alibis ? Heiji refuses to reply, but actually Conan does, from up far, saying it's the umbrella, Ran's umbrella, that Kato grasped before dying, which stands for Nobunaga's famous golden umbrella, which referred then to Wakisaka, the one who had told him where the scroll supposedly was.

Kasuya orders Conan to quickly get downstairs and if not to witness his friend's death, and while Heiji shouts to Conan never to do it, someone leaps into the void from Conan's storey, and lands just in front of the gangsters : that person is revealed to be Heizo. Heizo shelters his son, and tells Kasuya that even if he changed his whole appearance up to a million times, his despicable voice and rotten heart would never change as to them. Heizo reveals he had set a dragnet beforehand to lure Kasuya and his crooks into enetring the warehouse and to trap them afterwards, and, saying so, dozens of police squads surround them with weapons and lights, and arrest them, saying that they are the bank robbers who murdered so many people and who started thirteen years ago, when Kasuya needed an enormous amount of money to make up for the loss of income and to pay back his huge debt due to investing so much in that useless Hideyoshi's treasure quest at that time. Toyama says they still have, as obvious evidence, Kasuya's voice left on his victims' answerphones before silencing them, and his fingerprints he left here and there on the crime scenes - but he didn't mind since he spent millions in plastic surgery to change faces constantly. Heizo yells at them to surrender now, without putting up any resistance. And the squad launches assault, ending a long-lasting case with a spectatcular and to-be-remembered arrest. Otaki was the one who had abducted Conan, in order to shelter him away from danger.

In the police van, it is revealed that Wakisaka's grandfather or Wakiska himself had actually found the tiger's scroll, and Wakisaka lured his victims with it, sending a piece of earthenware to each of them to attract them all - then his grandfather had found a flask as well. He is the one who attracted Kasuya in the warehouse with another piece. It is therefore undertsood that Wakisaka was tracking Kasuya after the birdge case and Conan and Heiji were actually chasing Wakisaka and not Kasuya, rather wanting ot protect Kasuya from Wakisaka, and anyway they were completely ignorant of Kasuya being the last person of the picture, and being the gang leader. Kasuya blames Wakisaka for being so stupid since now he won't inherit a single penny from Hideyoshi's treasure. However, Wakisaka answers that the tiger's scroll wasn't a map but an Alexandrine written by Kajisuke : "The dragon's scroll is well worth those thousand items". Kajisuke is actually a famous Edo-era thief who constantly tried to steal Hideyoshi's gold in his castle's wells, which means actually Kajisuke stole all of Hideyoshi's treasure. Masakiyo said nothing to his comrades because they were all so obsessed with it, and they had put so much money in it.

Later on, Heiji gets incensed at his father's actual plan to use him as a bait to lure Kasuya and Wakisaka. He deliberately beat up his son in order to prompt it to lose his temper and track down the two culprits, who wouldn't be suspicious of a teenage kid and a seven-year-old following them, and they would never imagine the good haul that was being prepared by Heizo. Toyama had actually told Otaki about Kasuya, and had especially told him to track him down but also not to let Heiji know a single thing about it, and also to have Heiji floowed bypolice as well, just in case. Heizo also said this was a risky plan though as Kasuya had told his crooks to come along to retrieve the 1000 flasks. Heizo knew that Wakisaka was the criminal given the umbrella thing he deduced as well. Heiji can't hold back his anger, and he's probably the one responsible for Heizo's ear injury, who is being treated by Shizuka later on.

People

Arihiro Kasuya
	64 years old Tourist Role of Tokugawa Ieyasu

Toshiaki Fukushima
	32 years old Tourist Role of Akechi Mitsuhide

Maho Katagiri
	Victim (bashed) 39 years old Tourist Role of Nene

Shigehiko Wakisaka
	35 years old Tourist Role of Oda Nobunaga

Yuji Kato
	Victim (burned) 36 years old Tourist Role of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Hirano
	Deceased Tourist

Wounded Idol Case

Characters introduced

Osamu Kenzaki
	26 years old Actor

File 322 - A Long-Awaited Gathering

Kogoro Mouri gets an invitation for an engagement party from his favorite idol, Yoko Okino. Kaoru is the one who is getting engaged is another star and a former member of a group they all used to be in. She is a fan of Kogoro Mouri and wanted him to find out who was stalking her. Kaoru decides to take a bath. And the rest of the girl group decide to dress up and sing their old song to surprise her. Conan discovers blood leading to the door and they find her attacked. Bloody clothes are found outside which were made to make it seem like it was Kaoru's stalker but really is someone at the party.

File 323 - The Secret of the Idols

Megure searches everyone for the murder weapon but it isn't found. Though they discover a listening device and find drawers tampered with.

File 324 - The Idols' Regret

  Show spoilers »

The hospital calls and informs them that Kaoru's surgery went well. Meanwhile, Conan confronts the culprit, Yuki Takeno, Yuki used her sharp filed nail as a weapon and used a fake nail to cover it. She then bit it and spat it out into the sink. She had chloroformed Kaoru beforehand, tried to kill her, and then left fake blood splatters in front of the door, and threw the bloody raincoat outside the apartment, to make it believe she had been attacked by the stalker.

Her motive is that she has a crush on Kenzaki and she thought that the fake engagement was just Kaoru playing prank on her emotion. She attempted to commit suicide to pay for her crime of trying to kill Kaoru with hypoglycemic drug (since her dad's got diabetes), but Conan saved her life using sugar sticks. When Yuki woke up in the hospital Kaoru said that she testified wrongly to cover for Yuki and felt sorry that she wasn't aware of Yuki's crush on Kenzaki. Kaoru revealed that the rumor of the engagement was to get her manager Atsushi Makuma to have enough courage to confess her and later they become engaged (Kaoru wants to get married at age 20 like Yukiko Kudo).

It is later revealed that Terumi has idolized Shinichi.

People

Kaoru Kusano
	Victim (throat slit - injured) 20 years old Actress Osamu's fiancée

Yuki Takeno
	22 years old Variety performer

Terumi Hoshino
	23 years old Actress

Atsushi Makuma
	23 years old Kaoru's manager

Kidnapped Tourist Case

Characters introduced

James Black
	Mysterious man from Chicago

File 325 - Something the Lion Dropped

Conan, Ai, Professor Agasa, and the Detective Boys are enjoying the animal show at the place called the "Animal show with Paul & Annie". After the show, Ayumi says she and Ai bought a "Leon the White Lion" keychain. As Conan seems to look down on Ai for liking that kind of things, she ironically replies it's always better than spending one's days smelling the scent of blood during mysterious murder mysteries. They notice Randy Hawk, the show's sponsor, is being interviewed. Hawk is an American businessman from Oklahoma who started to buy animals and create a show after making a fortune in oil industry. He passed his passion down on his children Paul and Annie, and since then he's been travelling the whole world with his famous animal show. He said in a previous interview that he is a cow-boy and cow-boys know how to defend themselves, and don't need any bodyguards then. Agasa notes Hawk speaks Japanese very well. "Hawk" though keeps telling the reporters he's not Randy Hawk, that's a misunderstanding. Yet, they keep harassing him with questions such as why he came back to Japan after a three-year absence, why he donated half of the show's takings to zoos, etc. So much that "Hawk" shouts "Can you give me a break !!", and Conan notices something strange. Agasa says it's odd cow-boys easily lose their temper, and Ai comments on the fact that it serves him right since he comes here alone and without bodyguards, and tries to hide himself, then no wonder this occurs. Conan rather says they should give him a hand rather than laying it on thick, they should rescue the cowboy's princess, surrounded by cows and about to pass away.

Saying so, Conan comes forward and tells everyone "Hawk" is Professor Thomas, their friend they had been searching for so long, an English teacher moreover. Conan pulls him aside, and once they're out, the person thanks them a lot and says it's the first time he has been misunderstood that far, since he's aware of his likeness with Hawk. He says he loves P&A show and came to Japan on prupose to buy a made-in-Japan Leon keychain. He adds due to that problem he missed his appointment with his long-haired friend at the exit. Conan explains he deduced that man wasn't Randy Hawk since the way he said "can" was typically British, and not at all American, especially Southern American. Hawk has a very thick Texan accent, and besides he clearly hasn't the same face features as that man. Conan tells him Japanese can't make the difference between two Europeans, and James bends closer to Conan to congratulate him for being so perceptive of things. The man introduces himself as James Black, and Conan says he's Conan Edogawa, a detective. The kids come closer as well and say they are the Detective Boys, and Ayumi shows him her badge, on which he obviously recognises Sherlock Holmes. And then, James says they're the Baker Street Irregulars, Baker Street's children who often help Holmes in the novels. James reveals he was actually born in Baker Street, and he decides to treat his Baker Street friends to a nice dinner in a fine restaurant.

Agasa says he's only got five seats in his car, therefore James has to go and fetch his crossover car parked not far away. Though, he emphasizes that Agasa should drive it since he's not very familiar with left driving. Conan remarks however he should, given he's British, but James said he was born in England but raised in Chicago, Al Capone's city, in America, where they drive on the right. Ai has a strange feeling with James but Conan says he doesn't feel anything particular in him, and she is comforted afterwards. While James walks towards the car park, an unknown person is observing him from far, and phoning. As James opens his car's door, two police officers inetrrupt him and ask him to follow them, since his car is a stolen one, and they want to know the exact circumstances during which James rented it. They ask him to come to their police car, saying it won't be long, though James says he needs first to inform his friends that he might be late. The "policeman" then points a gun at him and violently kicks him into the car, and James drops his keychain on the ground. He says he cut his finger due to the blow's violence, and when he tells them he has the feeling they're not police agents, they tell "that upstart cowboy" to shut up.

James says it's another misunderstanding, he's not Hawk, but they say they'll have him share his enormous wealth a little with them. The two crooks then tell their driver, an accomplice, to start up and leave. Meanwhile, Agasa's group wonder at James's absence for about 40 minutes now, and they look for him in the close-by car parks. They eventually spot his car but find it strange he left his keys into his open car's door lock. They can't find him until three kids who were playing around tell them a mustached foreigner went with two other men in that direction. They follow it but find nothing except the keychain. The DBs believe James eventually left in another car to meet his friend. But Conan denies it since there is blood on the keychain, James's own blood he deliberately left (when he "cut himself") on the "P" "&" "A" of "Paul & Annie" in order to convey a message and tell them what happened to him, when they would find the chain. Then he was involved in an unexpected and dangerous case. They're about to call the police and Conan wonders what the meaning of the message is. In the car, James seems calm and composed, unscared, sucking his finger, with a dark look on his face.

File 326 - P & A

The crooks brag about their "good catch" and say they'll get millions as ransom in exchange for his release. They thank the fake police car's driver, dressed in a police agent's uniform, telling him he had a brilliant idea. They also mock "Hawk"'s getting around wihtout any bodyguards. James says they're completely mistaken, and when giving his name, the abductors believe he's from the British intelligence, thinking about James Bond. Though, they say it's not so important, and they order him to behave himself or else they'll get angrier. They tell "007" to watch how they'll easily extort money from his children, but James thinks to himself he is actually less interested in observing them than in observing how another person will behave and act. Agasa and the DBs hardly manage to have police agents believe James was abducted, since they didn't really see him being kidnapped, and none in the neighbourhood noticed anything, and it's hard indeed to find a specific old mustached foreigner, as there are many fitting that description. Ayumi shows the policeman a picture of Randy Hawk, saying James and him look alike. The policeman replies Hawk is currently being interviewed on the radio. Conan suddenly takes fright at the thought that James could be silenced by the crooks if the latter ever found out Hawk is actually on the radio, and that they did a big mistake.

Unfortunately, the crooks' driver turns on the radio and they are very negatively surprised to hear the businessman. One of the abductors gets angry and threatens to shoot James down straight away, but his sidekick orders him not to do it, since he would then have to wander around Tokyo with a bloody corpse on his shoulders. He rather suggests they drive as planned to Gunma mountains where they'll eliminate and bury the wrong Hawk, and afterwards they'll go back to Tokyo to really abduct Randy. None will ever expect nor discover who they really are and what they are planning to do, and when they will, the crooks will have been very far away now. The police agents agree to take the keychain to the station to analyse it, and especially James's blood, and they promise to investigate the kidnapping. As they leave, Agasa and the DBs try to figure out the meaning of P&A : is it "PA" ? Is it pistol and assassin ? PC and Access ? Parking Area ? Conan answers to that idea, saying he actually went near James's car in order to investigate, but found nothing at all. They decide to go and ask the neighbours about what they could have seen, each of them going in their own direction, and informing the others with their badges when they have found a nice clue. But suddenly, Ayumi is reminded when she gave her badge to James and he didn't give it back to her, and Conan takes advantage of this opportunity, locating it with his glasses.

He eventually finds out James is in a car which is going northwards-westwards on Ikumo Road 16 kilometers away. Conan decides to call Takagi, and asks him to settle roadblocks on Ikumo Road before Saitama Department, but Takagi says he can't implement such a presence as that information isn't checked, even if it seems dangerous. Sato overhears their conversation and quickly grabs the phone from her colleague's hands, saying she can ask Yumi to keep a close eye on cars there, since the latter had been sent to Ikumo Road to help with traffic due to a recent accident. Sato records Conan's description of James in front of an astounded Takagi, and she promises she'll phone Yumi as soon as possible. She adds she'll also go there with Takagi, given they are free at the moment, and Sato believes in Conan when he tells her they are dangerous abductors. Conan then tells Agasa they'll go to Ikumo as well with his Beetle to give Yumi a hand. Ai tells Conan she's intrigued by how the case all started : she finds it hard to believe that James was taken by two men from his car up to another car, through the alley, and that he deliberately left a blood message once in this alley to warn them. She thinks it far too complicated for such a mere old man, but Conan replies he was probably threatened with firearms when on the car park, and he tried to find a few seconds once in the dark alley to discreetly leave a message to anyone. Though, Ai still believes James knew the men were fishy from the beginning, and therefore he had well enough time to think about that plan. Then, he could have decided to follow them of his own free will, and to leave that kind of message just before, expecting the DBS and Agasa to find out the truth. Conan doesn't get it, and Ai says someone seems to be trying to lure them into a trap. As she says so, a big American pickup drives past the group, with Shuichi Akai in it (Vol. 29), discreetly glaring at them. Ai turns around panic-stricken, asking Conan if he saw who was in the car, to which he answers he didn't, and Ai feels comforted then.

At Ikumo, Yumi peeps into the cars one after the other, and suddenly she is hailed by the abductors, who ask her to grant them permission to leave before everyone else, since they have a rather urgent case to settle, with a "man who raised hell at his mistress's", hidden under a blanket, being secretly targeted by one of the crooks' gun, and moreover they have an inspection to carry out quickly before the night. Yumi agrees to free the way for them only, and resumes her search. Conan and co turn up and can't believe Yumi didn't find the abductors neither James. Conan wonders how they made it through the police's without being spotted. He says the car is still 8kms ahead from them, yet his transmitter-receiver is almost dead. Genta suggests they should call the badge, but Ai says it's a very bad idea : the kidnappers may get angrier and either kill James or hurt him very badly, along with destroying the badge, their only chance to ever find James. Yumi thinks P&A could refer to where they are going, and everyone starts thinking again about the message, with Ai's gallows-humoured suggestion that it could be Peritonitis & Apoplexy, then a hospital... Ayumi also makes a guess and says it has to do with animals : Pelican & Antelope, since James loves the animal show. Conan deduces something from her guess, and eventually congratulates her for helping him to find out the truth. Meanwhile, in the fake police car, James sees through the rear-view mirror Shuichi Akai's pickup following them closely, and he smirks mysteriously.

File 327 - A Stupid Plan

Ayumi notices that James Black still has her Detective Badge, allowing Conan to trace the signal and have Sato set up a road block intercepting the vehicle. The kidnappers manage to elude the road block since their vehicle is disguised as a police car.

People

Randy Hawk
	Animal show sponsor

Man #1
	Fake police officer

Man #2
	Fake police officer

Man #3
	Fake police officer

Unnamed Police 1
	Police

Unnamed Police 2
	Police

Sato's Omiai Case

File 328 - Sato's Omiai

Sato is having an arranged marriage meeting with a man due to her mother's persistence. She arrives to find out it's Ninzaburo Shiratori. She proposes that if Takagi does not arrive to her before sunset, she will marry him whether she wants to or not. He accepts, but Takagi is busy with a store robbery.

People

Mrs. Sato
	Miwako Sato's mother

Isokichi Kamoi
	Ninzaburo Shiratori's butler

Hiroshi Zama
	21 years old Freelancer

Eiko Koshimizu
	28 years old Office lady

Yasuo Kamieda
	32 years old School coach

Old man
	Witness

Girl
	Witness Shopping girl

Mamehara
	Witness Café owner

Cover in other countries

China

Finland

France

Germany

Hong Kong

Indonesia

Italy

Korea

Malaysia (Chinese)

Malaysia (Malay)

Rep. of China (Taiwan)

Sweden

Thailand

United States

Vietnam

See also

• Manga
• Volume 31-40
• Detective Conan