Volume 31

Chronology
‹ Volume 30	List of Chapters • List of Cases	Volume 32 ›

Volume 31
Information
Release date:	March 17, 2001
Chapters:	307-317
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-126161-2
Publisher:	Shogakukan
English release date:	September 15, 2009
English ISBN:	ISBN 1-4215-2199-7
English Publisher:	Viz Media
Featured Detective & Keyhole
Toyama no Kin-san Ginshiro Toyama
Aoyama's death & Conan side images

Volume 31 was released on March 17, 2001 in Japan.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Sonoko Suzuki Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Makoto Kyogoku (photo) Misao Yamamura Hiroshi Agasa Ai Haibara Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Sango Yokomizo 100px Leonardo DiCaprio (on TV) 100px Kate Winslet (on TV) Heiji Hattori Kazuha Toyama Shizuka Hattori Goro Otaki Heizo Hattori Ginshiro Toyama

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Chapters

Pottery Class Case

File 307 - The Hidden Word

The police are about to arrest Kikuyo, as they’ve found out she had bought a very expensive flat recently and may have killed her fiancé and future husband Motoo to get the latter’s life insurance premium. Before finding Motoo’s corpse with the others, she had previousky hidden it in the closet and pretended to go and fetch the first-aid kit to make people believe she couldn’t kill and hide Motoo in less than a minute. Mino confirms he saw Kikuyo trying to strangle Motoo, even though she claims it was a joke. Conan tranquilises Sonoko and discloses the truth : the only person who could have murdered Motoo was the one who last saw him and told Kikuyo to go and wait for him in the workshop, as it seems Motoo was pulling up his sleeves and preparing to go and help for ceramics as he was murdered.

  Show spoilers »

The culprit is therefore Muneyuki Mino. His alibi with the piece of apron cloth, allegedly being Motoo’s, and not being visible when he, Ran and Kikuyo went into the room is unvalid as it is a very cunning trick : he had cut a piece of apron and taped it inside the closet, on the right door, and then carefully closed the door back. Therefore, when someone whould open the door and close it back, the piece of cloth would come out from under the door. Mino broke a loud ceramic on purpose to attract the others’ attention and have them witness that the apron cloth was absent. Then he deliberately cut his finger to send Kikuyo to the closet and have her unknowingly do his trick, in order to have her accused when everyone would notice the cloth afterwards when finding Motoo’s corpse, to have them believe she was the killer. As Kikuyo was in a hurry to treat Mino’s injury, she cant’ be the killer as she didn’t notice it neither do it.

As for the body falling trick, Mino had tied it to a kind of string ; he then put the body in a diagonal forward-heading position, and hid it behind the aprons of the closet ; he then ran the « string » behind the horizontal crossbar for hangers, along the partition, up to the left door, into which crack he wedged the string, doing a knot at its end, and then closing both doors. Then, if someone opens the right door only, as Kikuyo did, nothing happens, and the body is hidden anyway, but if both or only the left door is opened, the string is released, and the body falls from the closet on the floor. The « string » used is actually Motoo’s tie, wrapped around his neck like a rope, and whose lower part was wedged in the door, the knot being the tie’s pin, explaining why the pin was much lower on the tie than it should be, and why the body pressure and the wedging had created a big gap between the pin and its frame. And not to see the tie poking out of the closet, you just needed to fold it back inside the crack a little.

When he opened the closet, Mino actually just cracked open both doors, first to have Motto’s body fall on the floor without suspicion (his tie would just be thought to be the weapon of the crime or his own tie, not anyhting else), then to avoid opening wide the right door, which would have revealed the cloth trick. When Motto’s body fell, Mino immediately rushed on his left side, which is just in front of the right door, to pretend helping him but actually used his body as a screen to prevent anyone from seeing him opening wide the right door, and retrieving the piece of cloth with the tape. Mino probably hid it into the bathroom afterwards while the police was investigating the corpse. Conan saw him taking scissors in the storeroom, probably to cut the cloth into pieces and then flush it into the toilet.

As Mino says this is not evidence, given anyone just could have done exactly the same thing, and since he often uses tape or aprons as a laborer, Sonoko says there is a piece of evidence only a ceramicist could have left, on Motoo’s tie : nail traces with clay on it, along with Mino’s DNA probably. As a ceramicist, he can’t fully remove clay from under his nails, and when he pulled the tie out to wedge it in the door’s crack, he left those traces. He didn’t use gloves as it would have been difficult to pull out the tie, and even with his bare hands he needed to be very careful not to leave the slightest fingerprint on the pin, completely forgetting the clay under his nails. Mino could have used a string or a rope instead of a tie, besides.

Though, the ceramicist wanted neither one nor the other : the tie was a love-labored Christmas present from his daughter to Motoo, and there’s no way using gloves that are normally used for « dirty » items. Moreover, the tie is a perfect rememberance of what Motoo has done to his daughter. Mino pretended this was a present from Kikuyo to Motoo by leaving a card inside. Mino wanted to have her accused of the murder as he also holds her responsible for her daughter’s death. Mino’s daughter had actually committed suicide by throwing herself under the wheels of a truck two years ago. Mino thought this was an accident at first, but had doubts then when finding out his daughter had discarded the present box with the tie still inside in her bedroom’s bin, implying she had killed herself due to her complicated love affairs with Motoo. Mino thought Motto should have the tie all the same and rushed to the airport, as Motoo was about to leave due to a job transfer, and once there he saw him in high spirits, enjoying a close and happy relationship with Kikuyo, not mourning at all, which means Mino’s daughter had found out she was being cheated on by her fiancé. Mino knew this was a present for Motoo as he had been shopping with his daughter who confessed to him that she wanted to offer her fiancé a tie whose beige color would bring out the clay – and so her ceramicist dad.

Makoto believed Sonoko’s cup was a flower pot, while Ran actually didn’t send hers to Shinichi, as she thought it spoiled. Conan finds the cup is being used by Ran instead as a pen box where « Eggheaded but boneheaded after all » is written on it, but « I’m waiting for you <3 » is written under it, reminding Conan of his promise to come back after Ran waits for him (Vol. 26), which makes him feel over the moon.

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

Ms.Mino
	Deceased (Traffic Accident) Mineyuki's daughter Former wife of Motoo

Major events

• Ran and Sonoko both want to make a piece of pottery for their respective boyfriends: Shinichi and Makoto.
• Ran decides to not send Shinichi her pottery, while Sonoko gives hers to Makoto. While looking for chips, Conan finds the pottery, which says "I will wait for you, Shinichi," which gets Conan red-faced, and makes him happy for the rest of the day.

Fake Kogoro Mouri Case

File 308 - An Impostor Appears

An imposter impersonates Kogoro Mouri at a hotel where he is invited to investigate a case where a man is said to have committed suicide 4-5 years ago. Kogoro decides to play along and not reveal his identity. Later that night, the impostor is found hanged in his room.

File 309 - Truth of the Impostor

Conan reveals that it is a murder and that it relates to the incident 5 years ago.

File 310 - The Time of Lies

  Show spoilers »

The culprit is Masao Jinbo. Afterwards, Mouri picks up girls who are his fans and gives them a ride in the car. He and the brown haired man who he killed 5 years ago in the forest of suicide victims were involved in an embezzlement scam that acquired them 50 billion yen from a confectionery enterprise. They then decided to leave the money in a briefcase at an inn for safekeeping and to build its interest. The brown haired man had a feeling that his partner would kill him to keep all the money and so removed the bills to a hidden location leaving a threatening post death message in a jar. The brief-case now containing the money was under the possession of the owner. Jinbo decided the only way he could obtain the money now was to employ himself as a worker at said inn. He hired a Mouri Kogoro body double to retrieve the brief-case under the impression he would get paid. Discovering that there was only a sumo magazine (that actually contained hints to the treasure's location) the body double felt double crossed and threatened to tell the real Kogoro everything once he arrived. Jinbo killed his hired double to keep him silent, then managed to discover the treasure's location before getting caught.

People

Yoshiro Onda
	58 years old Owner of Aoiya

Tatsuo Mori
	Victim (hanged) Kogoro Mouri's imposter

Masao Jinbo
	40 years old Aoiya staff

Eiji Urakawa
	37 years old Aoiya staff

Netted Man Murder Case

File 311 - Warm Ocean

Agasa takes the Detective Boys to the beaches of Ito (a city in Shizuoka Prefecture) for vacation. Conan lies idly on the sea surface and complains that he cannot fully enjoy when trapped in such a small body. However, after accidentally bumping into two young adult girls’ behinds and not facing any consequences, he changes his mind. Genta pops up beside Conan and remarks that he clearly liked their bodies; Conan blushes and dismisses the idea, and points to another girl, whom he says he likes more. Haibara joins the conversation and determines that Conan feels attracted to that girl because of her resemblance to “someone” (i.e. Ran). Conan is about to object to this, but that girl turns around, and she turns out to be nobody but Ran. Initially, Conan is surprised to see her (and Sonoko) in Ito, but then he recalls that they did mention that they were going on a trip somewhere. Sonoko says with a degree of disappointment that they did not take Conan because a trip with him would invariably involve them in a murder case, but Ran tells Conan that it is fine, that the more people together the more fun. Conan again blushes slightly as Haibara watches this conversation unfold on the side.

The Detective Boys thus start playing beach ball with Ran and Sonoko. After a while of fun (at least for Sonoko), she notices that Ran is gone; Mitsuhiko informs her that since Haibara is tired, Ran and Conan have accompanied her ashore. It turns out that Haibara is not only tired; according to Conan’s diagnosis, she suffers from sunstroke, and thus needs to rest somewhere shelled from the sun and have freezing cold towels applied to various parts of her body. Ran comes with a large bucket of ice and asks Agasa how Haibara is feeling; Agasa replies that she will soon be fine. Ran happily says “fantastic!”, and tells Haibara in a friendly manner that whenever she feels unwell she should tell others about it. Haibara pretends to be exhausted and does not utter a word, and Ran, not let down by her lack of reaction, rejoins Sonoko to play.

Conan and Agasa ask why Haibara would, instead of keeping playing or returning to Agasa’s side, sit on the beach alone and expose herself directly to the baking sun (which then gave her sunstroke). Haibara, presently lying on a lounger with her eyes closed and her right hand pressing the towel over her head, responds that she feels that she has nowhere to hide. This puzzles her two companions greatly, and they think that she is referring to man-eating sharks. Haibara opens her eyes, and says woefully that what she is dealing with is a dolphin, the most beloved mammal in the seas, and that one cannot compare a shark (herself) that just escaped from the cold and lightless bottom of the ocean (the Black Organization) with a dolphin (Ran). Conan and Agasa do not understand what she is going through and cannot grasp her metaphors, so Haibara says that they can go rest if they wish to.

Not far from where Haibara is lying, Sonoko gets into an argument with a local named Noboru Shimojo: Sonoko has found a boat and she is taking the remaining Detective Boys on a ride in it, which Shimojo deems dangerous for the many other tourists nearby. Ran and Yuta Yoshizawa (one of Shimojo’s friends) come to stop tension from building up, and Yoshizawa puts the boat away despite Ran’s offer to do it herself; he says that it is their duty as lifeguards.

A man (named Giichi Aramaki) lying on a lounger nearby and enjoying his drink overhears Yoshizawa’s words and comments scornfully that the reason why the likes of Yoshizawa and Shimojo have to make a living out of removing refuse on the beach and pretend to be “lifeguards” is that they are terrible at fishing, their main occupation. Shimojo is strongly irritated by these words, and accuses Aramakai of being the culprit behind their fishing problems. Yoshizawa calms his friend down, and reminds Aramaki of their meeting at Queen Hotel’s Chinese restaurant at 8 p.m. that night. Aramaki replies arrogantly that he will be there, and Sonoko and Ran, knowing that they have booked a table at that same restaurant for dinner, are suddenly at a loss (as they know that tension might arise between the two hostile parties).

The night approaches quickly. Ran and Sonoko arrive at the Chinese restaurant, and they see that coincidentally, Agasa and the Detective Boys dine there as well. Ran, noting Haibara’s absence, asks where she is. Mitsuhiko and Genta say that Haibara is sleeping in her room and has no appetite for dinner, and Sonoko remarks that Ran seems to care a lot about Haibara. Ran explains that she just wants to talk to her, as, up to that point, whenever they see each other in the eyes Haibara would immediately turn away and look at something else. Ran then adds jokingly that Haibara might dislike her.

At this moment Shimojo arrives at the restaurant. Since it is only 7:12 p.m., he can do nothing but sit down at the adjoining table and wait. Sonoko remarks that they should finish the dinner quickly and get out of the restaurant before an argument erupts, and Shimojo retorts by saying that argument is not what they are seeking, that they simply want to make Aramaki understand the rules of nature. He explains that local fishermen know that once the fish stock is depleted it will take ages for it to recover, for which they have put a cap on how many fish to catch each year; but Aramaki, being an outsider, either does not know this or does not care, and operates under the philosophy that the more fish caught, the better. Yoshizawa arrives at this moment and adds that the laws regulating the fishing industry are weakly enforced, because of which nobody can actually force Aramaki to stop his ecologically destructive activities. Shimojo asks Yoshizawa where their other companion is, and Yoshizawa responds that that person is visiting their fathers’ tombs and thus will be late. Sonoko asks them to tell her more, and the two fishermen recount that the fathers of all three died exactly eight years ago when they went fishing on the same boat and were overwhelmed by a rainstorm.

The two fishermen and Sonoko keep on chatting avidly and drink (although Sonoko is under 18) until the third fisherman, who is named Nobutsugu Nezu, arrives. He disputes Yoshizawa’s account of their fathers’ tragic end and says that their boat was actually sinked by Aramaki, whom he refers to as a “pirate”. It is now 8:40 and Aramaki still has not come, so Nezu decides to call him (the other two have already done so various times, but nobody picked up). This time the call is actually picked up, but nobody speaks, and the only thing that Nezu can hear on the phone is a noise resembling waves gently hitting the beach. Shortly after, Aramaki hangs up. The three fishermen, very unimpressed with Aramaki’s attitude, decide to set out to look for him. He turns out to be dead, with his body left in the waters of the intertidal zone and entangled by fishing net.

File 312 - Caught in a Net...

Sango Yokomizo arrives at the crime scene to investigate. His team determines that the victim was drowned, which prompts Conan to ask why the clothes on the body are torn and why there are bruises and scars on Aramaki’s body. Yokomizo removes Conan from the body, and tells a subordinate to untangle the body and carry it away for a posthumous medical examination, which will reveal approximately when he died. Yokomizo tells the three fishermen that they are all suspects, as they could easily kill Aramaki before heading to the restaurant (Yokomizo knows that the crime cannot be committed after that because Sonoko has confirmed to him that the three fishermen never left the restaurant before going on the search). He also finds it suspicious that they came to the deserted seaside to search for Aramaki, which prompts the fishermen to bring up their various phone calls. Aramaki’s call records (which somehow survived despite having been submerged in water) corroborate the fishermen’s assertions: that Yoshizawa called Aramaki once, at around 7 p.m., that Shimojo called him thrice, all at around 8 p.m., and that Nezu called him at 8:41 (i.e. shortly after he arrived at the restaurant). From these records, Yokomizo determines that none of the fishermen was able to commit murder: the last call being picked up necessarily means that either Aramaki was alive at the time or his murderer was near him. But none of the fishermen could kill him after 8:41, and at 8:41 they were all in the Chinese restaurant. Conan, unlike Yokomizo, still thinks that one of them murdered Aramaki, but recognizes that the call records present a huge logical obstacle.

At this point the rest of the Detective Boys notice that the boat that Sonoko found in the morning is now drifting in the sea and not far from the crime scene. Yokomizo orders his subordinates to retrieve it (Agasa says that he should help as well, and Yokomizo’s inability to come up with a good excuse for not helping prompts Ayumi to guess that he does not know how to swim despite having a “coral-like” hairstyle), and they find that the boat is partially filled with sea water and holds a large (and empty) sake bottle, a single sandal and a shirt button. Since there is a button missing on Aramaki’s shirt and he had only one sandal on upon death, Yokomizo deduces that the murder occurred as follows: the murderer made Aramaki drink, and when he was drunk carried him into the boat and entangled him with fishing net. The murderer met fierce resistance (which is why Aramaki’s body is full of injuries and the button and sandal are not on his body), but eventually he (or she) was able to overpower and successfully drown Aramaki. Conan disagrees; he says that under that scheme the murderer would throw the sake bottle etc. into the sea to destroy evidence. The other Detective Boys present argue that doing so would pollute the sea, Conan retorts that that is not his point, and the four kids start a heated quarrel. Yokomizo, unable to withstand this, picks all four up simultaneously, takes them before Agasa and orders him to never lose control or sight of them again. This fails at the very moment that they are dropped down; Ayumi, spotting a piece of rubbish floating on the sea surface, rushes there to pick it up (and Agasa does not even attempt to tell her to come back). On the way, she accidentally steps on something and is hurt. Mitsuhiko asks her whether she is ok, and Ayumi answers in affirmative, adding that there are a lot of seashells on the beach. This inspires Conan, who runs to a subordinate of Yokomizo, who shows him that there are a lot of scrape marks on Aramaki’s phone. After this, Conan seems to have a general picture of how the murder took place, but he feels that something is still missing.

Conan begins pondering what the last piece required to complete the puzzle can possibly be, but he is distracted by Sonoko, who suggests to Yokomizo that the boat is there to mislead the police and make them think that there was some sort of trick. According to her, the murderer simply entangled Aramaki and trapped him in the net, and left him at a suitable place such that during high tide he would be submerged and thus drowned. Yokomizo respectfully rejects her hypothesis, saying that the fishing net did not severely limit Aramaki’s ability to move and that he would be able to sit up during high tide to avoid being drowned unless he had been fed potent sleeping pills; Yokomizo thus fails to notice that Sonoko did make some valid points. Conan, on the other hand, feels enlightened by this flawed deduction, and immediately figures out the murderer and a way to make him admit guilt.

The last panels of this file depicts a slightly bored and tired Haibara watching TV and eating chips in a hotel room. She wonders why everyone else has been dawdling so much.

File 313 - A Courageous Decision

  Show spoilers »

Conan is ready to deduce, but realizes that he does not have the voice-changing bowtie with him. Fortunately, Haibara shows up with it; she explains that instinct told her that Conan coming home late could only mean that there was a murder case that he must solve first. With the bucket, basin, sea star and seashell that the other Detective Boys have brought, Conan, via Agasa, announces that he will conduct an experiment, which he claims is analogous to what actually happened during the murder. Agasa digs a hole in the sand-filled basin to fit the dried sea star in (this corresponds to the murderer digging a hole on the beach to place Aramaki in it), and covers the sea star with the bowl-shaped seashell, with the side that used to contain the soft parts of the animal facing upwards (this corresponds to placing the boat directly on Aramaki so that its weight would prevent him from ever getting up; Conan also mentions that the boat was partially filled with water to increase the weight and to ensure that any struggle made by Aramaki to get the boat off him would be futile). Then, when Agasa pours water into the basin, the sea star is immersed and the seashell, whose density is less than that of water, starts floating on the surface and drifts elsewhere (this corresponds to Aramaki being drowned during high tide and the boat moving away from him). The murder has thus been executed without the murderer having to be with Aramaki right before his death. As for the call at 8:41, Yokomizo believes that it can be explained by the following: the deceased’s body, along with the phone, rolled over and over with the tide, meaning that the phone was regularly making contact with and banging on the seashells on the beach. So it was the seashells that “pressed” the button beginning and terminating the call, and its occurrence was purely coincidential and not designed by the murderer. Yokomizo reasons that the evidence supporting this conjecture includes the various bruises and scars all over Aramaki’s body and his heavily scraped phone.

Conan agrees with Yokomizo’s deduction and adds that the items abandoned in the boat reflect the murderer’s attempt to mislead the police by making them think that the murder happened inside rather than under the boat. He then declares Noboru Shimojo to be the murderer. Shimojo demands incriminating evidence, but Conan has none, making Shimojo yell at Agasa satisfyingly that the only thing that they know for sure is that he was in the restaurant when the murder occurred. Conan asks whether anyone can prove that, and Shimojo impatiently yells that Agasa himself can. Conan then claims that Agasa has a bad memory and does not remember when that was. Upon hearing this, Shimojo explodes and screams furiously and aggressively that when Aramaki died at 8 p.m., Agasa was in the restaurant with him. Yokomizo interjects and asks Shimojo how he knew that Aramaki died then, and Shimojo claims that he has overheard the conversation of Yokomizo and a subordinate, but Yokomizo says that the coroner was not that specific in his (or her) estimate. Shimojo, now panicking, says that Yokomizo must be joking, because a more exact death time can be determined by looking at the livor mortis and the degree of stiffness of the corpse. Conan replies that making an inference based on these features requires the corpse to be under a set of specific conditions clearly not satisfied in this case. He then reiterates his belief that Shimojo is the murderer, which crushes Shimojo’s final defense, and he kneels down on the beach, murmuring that his two fishermen friends should thank him for avenging their fathers. He recounts that by interrogating one of the crew members of Aramaki’s boat, he was able to learn the truth behind their fathers’ premature death. It was a day with heavy rain and a treacherous storm, but Aramaki still sailed to fish. The three fishermen’s fathers, who also made a living by catching fish, knew of the danger that a raging sea posed, and thus followed Aramaki in an attempt to convince him to come back. Aramaki thought that they were just being annoying, and ordered his crew to charge at the three fathers’ little boat (which was no longer under their control because the furious waves had engulfed the rudder); this threw them into the turbulent sea. Aramaki then refused to save them and came back on his own. Shimojo continues to say that he initially thought of contacting the police, but Aramaki, who knew which crewmember had spilled his misdeeds to others, pushed him into the sea on a voyage which only the two of them went on.

The story is now over, and Shimojo falls into silence. Nezu breaks the silence and tells Shimojo seriously that even though Aramaki committed heinous crimes, murdering him is still unjustified, because that makes Shimojo essentially the same as Aramaki. Shimojo does not understand why Nezu would criticize him, and says savagely that he has sacrificed his future to kill their shared enemy, and that what he has done is a brave act which does not deserve such disapproving attitudes. Ran, who has been listening silently and attentively since the beginning, finally speaks up. With some grief on her face and with a very heavy heart, she tells Shimojo that he is completely wrong, as “bravery” only applies when someone dares to fight for a rightful cause, and can never be the justification of a murder. Shimojo is left completely speechless by her words, and leaves with the police without uttering anything further. As he is escorted away, a sorrowful and peaceful smile emerges on his face.

The sun has now risen. Seagulls congregate around Ran as she tells Sonoko that she thought that Shinichi would have said the same. Haibara approaches her, and Ran’s words still echo in her head. She stops right before Ran emotionlessly, waits for a few seconds, and extends her right hand: “my name is Ai Haibara, nice to meet you.” A dozen of gulls spiral around them as Ran smiles and extends her right hand towards Haibara too.

People

Noboru Shimojo
	34 years old Fisherman

Yuta Yoshizawa
	34 years old Fisherman

Giichi Aramaki
	Victim (drowned) 51 years old Fisherman

Nobutsugu Nezu
	35 years old Fisherman

Major events

• Haibara acts incredibly quiet around Ran. Ran believes that Haibara may hate her.
• When Genta asks Conan which girl's body attracted him more, Conan points out that the only decent one was that of the girl behind him. The girl turns out to be Ran. Haibara expresses sadness towards Conan's feelings for Ran, revealing possible feelings she herself has for Conan.
• At the end of the episode, Haibara formally introduces herself to Ran, showing that she will not hide from her anymore.

Naniwa Swordsman Case

Characters introduced

Soshi Okita
	Kyoto Senshin High representative

File 314 - The Naniwa Swordsman

Conan, Ran and Kogoro are coming at last to Heiji's place in Osaka to enjoy time and dinners together, and also to meet Heiji's parents. Meanwhile, Heiji hopes to win a kendo competition, a sport in which he excels, and especially to defeat famous Soshi Okita from Kyoto Senshin High School, who injured his neck with a special blow last year. He says he wants to win the tournament notably to declare his love to Kazuha, as an anwser to the "love injury" Kazuha made to him (Vol. 28). Some time after, Heiji overhears a violent argument between a drunk kendoka named Tarumi and his team from the University of Shinnai, who calls him a loser as he always do everything to throw a wrench in their gears. As Hakamada, the team captain, harshly looks down on Tarumi, the latter says he has nothing to lose (he was fired from his job) and will soon "let the cat out of the bag", adding he will kill Hakamada some day.

Afterwards, the team worries about Tarumi's absence and they start looking for him in the whole Naniwa sports hall, only to find him dead in a warehouse, covered in blood, probably stabbed with a sabre. They go and get the police, ambulance and also their team captain to come to the warehouse. Hakamada arrives first with the rest of the team, along with Heiji who had eavesdropped their conversation, only to note there's absolutely no corpse, no blood and no sabre in the warehouse. Some sports hall employees come along and tell the group a mysterious man has just called them, asking them to tell the Shinnai team to go to the swimming pool's changing rooms to find Tarumi there. They indeed find the corpse of their mate there, drenched under a hot shower, near the sabre.

As the police arrive, Heiji wonders how the corpse came to be transported from the warehouse to the changing room without people's notice. He starts calling "Kudo" to get some help to solve the murder, but eventually hangs up when he hears Kazuha say Kudo will solve the matter in a flash, which makes Heiji angry and wanting to solve it by himself, before Shinichi/Conan's arrival in Osaka.

File 315 - The Invisible Swordsman

Heiji decides to investigate the case, and accordingly his kendo team must try and win the tournament without their champion, which will be quite hard. Heiji tells Otaki Tarumi’s mates could be suspected, since a demonstration sabre was stolen today, and the murderer seemed to know very well how to use a sabre, and where all the rooms and storage rooms of the sports hall are, not mentioning the previous argument. Though, Heiji can’t find any evidence, neither how the corpse was transported to the changing room. Hakamada says someone stole his kendo plate, which is not so important in the end, because the tournament is over for them. Kazuha end Heiji’s team feel tense as they watch Okita knocking down and taking out their kendokas one after the other during the matches. Therefore, Kazuha starts running and searching for Heiji everywhere in the hall.

Heiji has Doguchi, one from the Shinnai team, own up to the fact that Haori, their manager, and also Tarumi’s ex-girlfriend, who started dating Hakamada, eventually left them after the « affair ». Heiji can’t get more information as he is distracted by two kendokas talking about Okita’s moves, and Doguchi escapes his grip. Heiji asks the kendokas if they saw any suspicious person during the murder, and they reply they indeed saw a tall kendoka in full wear carrying another one's wear in a kendo bag. Heiji understands that only Hakamada could do it, as he is strong enough to carry a corpse in a bag, and he could have hid behind the storage room's pommel horse after his murder, waiting for his mates to leave. However, Heiji immediately rules out this possibility, given Hakamada couldn't be sure if one of his mates would remain in the room waiting for the police to come, or not. Hakamada comes up to Heiji and threatens him saying things will go worse for him if he keeps harassing his childhood friend Doguchi, who doesn't stand the sight of blood and wouldn't harm a fly.

As Conan, Ran and Kogoro are about to turn up momentarily, Heiji realises some mannequins could have been used, and he rushes to the storage room, opens the pommel horse, and finds out the truth.

File 316 - The Swordsman of Justice

Kazuha goes on looking for Heiji, and ends up coming across Ran, Kogoro and Conan, telling them Heiji is investigating a murder, which arouses Conan's curiosity. She brings them to the pool's changing room, while the murderer stares at them and leaves towards the storage room with a kendo bag. Once there, he takes a bloody towel out of the bag, along with a bottle of water. Meanwhile, Otaki explains Mouri and co the whys and wherefores of the case, and Conan stands thinking deeply. He then deduces who the murderer is and the trick he used.

  Show spoilers »

The murderer goes on "cleaning" the pommel horse with the towel, but is interrupted by Heiji who says to him his doing is pointless, as none would have more reasons to believe Tarumi was killed here even though he's doing it. Then, Heiji reveals that culprit to be Takashi Kotegawa. Kotegawa got Tarumi drunk and probably put some sleeping product into Tarumi's alcohol bottles. Then, he discreetly brought Tarumi to the storage room and covered him in red painting, and did the same to a sabre he put next to him. He then joined the other members of his team and pretended to look for Tarumi with them. When they found him, he first proposed to go and call the emergency services, and told Omotani to go and fetch police, knowing it would take at least 10 minutes. He also knew that Doguchi would leave the place as he can't stand the sight of blood, and would have probably gone and fetched Hakamada, which would also take some time as Hakamada has a rather unremarkable build. None saw the trick as the storage house is dark, and they were very tense back then. Kotegawa pretended then to go back into the storage room alone to check Tarumi's body while allegedly phoning, but actually he put the sabre between his hands and woke him up, showing him "what he had done" : inside the pommel horse was the "corpse of Hakamada", actually a mannequin clothed with full kendo wear and covered in red painting, and who had Hakamada's stolen plate on it, to make Tarumi believe he had indeed killed Hakamada during a drunk fit of anger. Kotegawa carried on his lie and proposed to cover for Tarumi by diverting attention while Tarumi would take off his "bloody" clothes, and put on another full kendo wear, and also put his bloody clothes into a kendo bag. Then, he would walk up to the pool's changing room where Kotegawa would join him afterwards. Kotegawa also told him to put the sabre back in his sheath and to bring it with him to the changing room.

Kotegawa pretended to stay at the storage room to check the pommel horse, but actually he just cleaned the red painting and went afterwards to the changing room where he really murdered Tarumi with the sabre. He then took off Tarumi's full kendo wear and left him under a hot shower, hoping this would clean both blood and red painting. Afterwards, Kotegawa left the sabre there, put the full bloody wear into the kendo bag where Tarumi's first one was, and hid the bag somewhere, then went back to the storage room to alledgedly check Tarumi's absence with the others. Kotegawa did all that to pretend someone had killed Tarumi in the storage room and then taken his corpse to the pool's changing room. Before turning on the shower, Kotegawa mopped uo some of Tarumi's blood with a towel and intended to come back later on not to clean the pommel horse but actually to add some of Tarumi's blood on it, and then cleaning it again, to make it believe he really had been killed here, and that the culprit had taken the body to the pool to put it there, after cleaning the pommel. He also intended to remove the mannequin from the inside of the pommel, and to clean everything, in case the police ever had a look into it. Heiji tells Kotegawa actually a true blood splatter and a wiped or cleaned one don't have the same reaction and appearance to luminol, and the forensics will quickly figure out what really occurred. The unquestionable evidence is the bloody towel he has in hand, and probably Tarumi's bloody clothes and kendo wear in the bag.

Kotegawa admits he killed Tarumi, because the latter was an out-of-control and immoral kendoka who would often violently fight against other practitioners, to the point he killed a young freshman kendoka, and had it posed as an accident. Usually, Hakamada would be the one who stopped him from going too far, but he was away that day, and Tarumi then told everyone to keep it silent, swearing he would expose them all to the police if he ever were to be arrested, as they were unable to stop him while they should have. Fearing he might lose his job, Kotegawa silenced Tarumi, and he tells Heiji he actually stole two sabres earlier today, and, saying this, slashes Heiji's right cheek with the other sabre. Meanwhile, Conan fears the murderer might have come back to the storage and confronted Heiji, and he rushes there with Kazuha. Heiji manages to block Kotegawa's blow with his cellphone, saying Kotegawa won't fool anyone any longer now if he kills him, but Kotegawa answers actually the cops would just think the killer is the same, and would never suspect him as he couldn't transport the corpse, since he was seen by many people while Tarumi was the one walking to the pool. He is about to kill Heiji but the latter avoids it and jumps over the sabre which gets stuck in the pommel, and Heiji quickly grabs the sabre's sheath, all the while showing his "Hattori" plate to Kotegawa, who can't believe he is Hattori, the skilled practitioner of Kaiho High School. Kazuha's charm is hanging around the sabre, meaning Heiji can't lose, and indeed Heiji knocks Kotegawa out with a "Ura no Sukey" technique. Conan and Kazuha arrive...a little too late.

Kazuha grabs Heiji's arm and tells him to hurry before the Kaiho team loses but...it's too late as well. Though, Heiji says he lost the tournament but won the duel, which Conan doesn't understand.

People

Soshi Okita
	Kyoto Senshin High representative

Atsushi Tarumi
	Victim (slashed) 22 years old Senpo (First up), Shinnai University

Mineo Omotani
	22 years old Jiho (Second up), Shinnai University

Noriyuki Doguchi
	21 years old Chuken (Middle position), Shinnai University

Takashi Kotegawa
	22 years old Fukusho (Vice-captain), Shinnai University

Masamichi Hakamada
	22 years old Taisho (Captain), Shinnai University

Major events

Heizo punches his own son, to anger him into working harder on the case, and to have him try and confront the criminal.

Tiger Scroll Case

File 317 - The Ruler's Palace

After the Naniwa case, Heiji and co are having a delicious dinner at the Hattori's, where they also meet Ginshiro Toyama, Kazuha's father. Kazuha zonks out from exhaustion, given she spent the afternoon running in search of Heiji. Heizo says his son is good at investigating, but not as much as Kogoro, which means for Heiji that he still cannot hold a candle to Kudo. Ginshiro says Heiji is the spitting image of his friend Heizo when he was younger. Heizo tells Toyama to go easy on alcohol, but the latter says it's not a problem as Heizo will "drive them home". Heizo understands it as Toyama wanting to discuss a very important matter with him one to one. Indeed, in Heizo's car, Toyama tells his old friend that Kazuha is a big girl now and he doesn't think of another perfect future husband for her than Heizo's son. Kazuha pretends to sleep but actually overhears their conversation. Heizo sternly tells his friend to stop beating around the bush, and Toyama comes to the real issue, revolving around the Osaka Castle Case of 13 years ago, during which a wholly burnt corpse, unable to be identified, had been found in the castle's moat. Toyama shows Heizo the burnt piece of earthenware they had found inside the victim's inner pocket, and says he now makes a connection with a more recent case during which a corpse was found too, in the castle's eastern ramparts, with quite the same piece on him, featuring the "848" number. Toyama believes the two pieces are the same and have a kind of mysterious relationship, and thinks their first theory may turn out to be true after all, the "incredible treasure left by the mortals".

The day after, Kazuha takes Conan, Heiji, Ran, and Kogoro to Osaka Castle, and shows them around the same way as Heiji did when they first came to Osaka (Vol. 19). Heiji remarks it, and finds Kazuha's plan to visit the castle boring, he wishes they had gone visiting the Osaka Prefectural Police instead. Kazuha says the Castle has always remained very beautiful, and an old man named Arihiro Kasuya tells her the history of the castle : its building in 1599 by Hideyoshi Toyotomi, its rebuilding in 1629 by Ieyasu Tokugawa, its new third tower built in 1931 by the inhabitants of Osaka, and finally its refurbishment not long ago. Kasuya says Toyotomi is his thought leader, and he explains he wears the badge emblem of Ieyasu because he is part of a game trip called "Hideyoshi's 8 Days/Hide Days", during which 5 selected fans of medieval Japan and Hideyoshi, from the Nagoya, Osaka and Kyoto regions, are playing roles every day, embodying one of Japan's great unifiers and characters among Hideyoshi, Nene, Ieyasu, Nobunaga Oda and Mitsuhide Akechi, with some certain duties to perform according to each. Heiji and co meet the other players : Toshiaki Fukushima as Mitsuhide, Maho Katagiri as Nene, Shigehiko Wakisaka as Nobunaga, and Yuji Kato, who plays Hideyoshi, but who's not here at the moment, as he told his comrades he suddenly needed to be alone for a moment, after a sudden phone call. Heiji and co leave them together to go and visit the castle. Meanwhile, Kato, in the bathroom, is reading with excitement a scroll where the Japanese ideogram character for "dragon" is featured, commenting about his prayers to find the glorious light being granted at last, thirteen years after.

Heiji yells at Kazuha for losing her wallet though she has a well-closing handbag, and forcing them to visit the castle backwards as a result, and she answers Heiji rushed her a lot and she ended up losing it then. As it starts raining, Ran takes an umbrella out of her bag and they all shelter under it. Conan hints at the fact Kazuha may have forgotten her wallet at the shop where she's bought a disposable camera not long ago, and she and Ran go and check for it. Kogoro, Conan and Heiji meet the four travellers again, who are worried since Kato is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, an explosion occurs and someone is burning on the roof of the castle, falling from the balcony onto the floor. Heiji and Conan rush to rescue him while Kogoro calls the paramedics. The victim grabs Ran's umbrella to show Heiji something, and dies afterwards.

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

Cover in other countries

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  China
• 

  Finland
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  France
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  Germany
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  Hong Kong
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  Indonesia
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  Italy
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  Korea
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  Malaysia (Chinese)
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  Malaysia (Malay)
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  Norway
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  Rep. of China (Taiwan)
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  Spain (Spanish, Volumen 2)
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  Sweden
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  Thailand
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  United States
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  Vietnam

See also

• Manga
• Volume 31-40
• Detective Conan