The Client's Message

Chronology
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Episode 689 (Int. Episode 741)
Information
Title:	The Client's Message
Japanese title:	依頼人からのメッセージ (Irai-nin Kara no Messēji)
Original airdate:	March 2, 2013
Broadcast rating:	9.7%
Filler case:	#206
Season:	18
Manga source:	TV Original
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Fox
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Screenplay:	Atsushi Maekawa
Storyboard:	Susumu Nishizawa
Episode director:	Minoru Tozawa
Animation director:	Chiemi Hironaka
Character design:	Masatomo Sudo Chiemi Hironaka (sub-character) Kumiko Shishido (design works)
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mouri Rikiya Koyama as Kogoro Mouri Chafurin as Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi as Wataru Takagi Sanryō Otaka as Police officer Masafumi Kimura as Takashi Sasamori Noriko Shitaya as Kaoru Sasamori Hiroshi Kawaguchi as Hikari Tsuge Yoko Soumi as Mariko Noguchi Satoko Kitō as Kazumi Ishikura
Music
Opening song:	TRY AGAIN
Closing song:	Hitomi no Melody

The Client's Message (依頼人からのメッセージ ,Irai-nin Kara no Messēji) is the 689th episode of Detective Conan anime.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Eri Kisaki (shadow)

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Case

Situation

On a rainy night, Kogoro, Ran, and Conan are riding in their rental car talking about the person who requested Kogoro to investigate if her boyfriend who was cheating passed away. The person's name is Kaoru Sasamori and she fell down a flight of stone stairways. It happened three months ago when four people were at the funeral of Kaoru Sasamori. The four people were Takashi Sasamori (Kaoru's older brother), Hikari Tsuge (Kaoru's ex-lover), Mariko Noguchi (Tsuge's manager), and Kazumi Ishikura (Kaoru's friend). It started when Takashi angrily accused Tsuge to be the murderer who pushed Kaoru down the stairs, claiming that he saw him do it. Tsuge denied every word what Takashi said, he claiming that he did not kill Kaoru. Noguchi tried to stop the argument, saying that he police already investigated and determined that it was a misunderstanding. Back in the present, Kogoro is going to Tsuge's house because this morning, Tsuge contacted to Kogoro saying that he would reveal who really killed Kaoru.

On the next stop, when Kogoro talks to the officer, the officer said there was a landslide ahead and the right road is inaccessible. They were going to Tsuge's house so they took the left road. Tsuge had also invited the three other people that made a commotion at the funeral. When Kogoro arrives at Tsuge's house, Takashi and Noguchi also were there with their own umbrellas so they won't get wet. The door's unlocked, and Tsuge isn't there to greet them, so Noguchi enters the house to look for Tsuge. Ran notices Kazumi coming from her car without an umbrella. Kazumi says she forgot to bring one, so Ran helps her under own umbrella. While Conan is checking Kazumi's car, he hears a scream. When the group goes inside the house, they find Tsuge dead in a pool of blood.

Murder
	Location: Tsuge's house Victim: Hikari Tsuge Age: 33 years old Cause of death: Blunt head trauma Suspects: Takashi Sasamori, Mariko Noguchi, and Kazumi Ishikura Tsuge lies in his workshop, dead in a large pool of blood.

Kogoro checks his wrist and confirms that he's dead so he tells Ran to call the police. He also orders the rest of the people to leave the crime scene. Before they're about to leave, Noguchi requests Kogoro to make sure no one touches Tsuge's art piece. Kogoro understands it so he will inform the police about it. While Conan is investigating, he notices three pieces of tape on the floor. There's no dust on the tape, meaning something on it recently. He also notices the screen and the art piece on the table. The art piece has a label with the word, "Demurrer".

While the police investigates the crime scene, Takagi confirms that the victim is Hikari Tsuge. His real name is "Ritsu Hikage" and he's 33 years old. His profession was a sculptor and Hikari Tsuge is an anagram from Ritsu Hikage. The cause of death was intracranial injury from a blow to the back of the head. What may seem to be the murder weapon, the hammer, was on the ground nearby, but the fingerprints have been wiped clean.

Megure begins the conversation with the three people. Everyone was invited to Tsuge's house by the victim so he can tell them who the culprit is from three months ago. When they all arrived, Tsuge wasn't breathing anymore and the culprit had already left. According to the officer from the checkpoint, nobody else came dow the atelier's path. To begin with, excluding U-turns, only four cars drove up the slope: the four cars belonging to Kogoro, Takashi, Noguchi, and Kazumi. Which means the culprit could be among them.

Going to Tsuge's house, there's only one path and ahead there's a checkpoint. In the rain, going down the dark slopes is risky. This would be truly called a closed circle. The ones who got to Tsuge's first house were Ran, Conan and Kogoro. Everyone else came afterwards. Takashi was leading, behind Takashi was Kazumi, and lastly Noguchi. They all went inside together and found the corpse.

Back at the checkpoint, when Kogoro, Ran, and Conan were heading toward the atelier, what the officer said, "You guys, too?" meaning there was someone was ahead of them and went to the atelier. They could ask the officer about the type of car or driver. About that, he remembers they were four cars, but not the type of car or the driver.

In other words, if they can organize the story, this is how it went down: From the beginning, there was only one car at the atelier: Tsuge's car. Then, Kogoro's group arrived, next were the other three cars, ,aking the total four cars. However, according to the policeman, there was a car in front of Kogoro. This likely means that the culprit's car arrived first, murdered Tsuge, left the atelier and hid elsewhere. He waited until everyone else came, then appeared as if nothing had happened.

Kogoro deduces that the culprit's motive is to silence him. From Tsuge, three months ago, the culprit heard that he will reveal who the murderer is, so the culprit came to Tsuge's house as soon as possible and murdered Tsuge. In other words, this case's murderer may be the same one who murdered Kaoru Sasamori. The three suspects are Takashi, Noguchi, and Kazumi.

Takashi claims that he's not the culprit. That day, he made a promise to his sister to have a meal, but the photo shoot he was holding got prolonged and he was a bit late. When he went to the meeting place, he saw Kaoru falling down the stairs and went to her side.

Murder (Past)
	Location: Stone steps Victim: Kaoru Sasamori Age: 24 years old Cause of death: Fell from upstairs Suspects: Hikari Tsuge Kaoru had fallen down the stairs. When Takashi rushed to her aid, Kaoru says that someone one was behind her. Takeshi realizes that she must have been pushed.

He was certain that he saw Tsuge who was on top of the stone stairs, so he was convinced that Tsuge was the culprit.

Kazumi mentions that Kaoru told her about Takashi and Kaoru not getting along because they were disputing over their parent's inheritance money. Kazumi suspects Takashi is the one who pushed Kaoru down the stairs. Noguchi explains Tsuge had another woman other than Kaoru he was seeing, and Kaoru hired Kogoro to find out who. The other woman was who is none other than Kazumi Ishikura. Kazumi claims that she didn't know that Tsuge was going out with Kaoru. She found out when received a message on her phone from Kaoru: "I was proposed to by Tsuge! What should I do?" Kazumi confronted Tsuge about it, getting into a big argument with him about breaking up with Kaoru. Takashi then reveals that Kaoru told him that Noguchi was trying to pay her to break up with Tsuge, but she had refused the payment. Fed up that Tsuge wasn't working, Noguchi's clients began to look for different artists. If that happens, she'll have to pay a huge penalty for breach of contract.

Conan asks Takagi if he could take him to see if there are any possible hiding spots for a car between the atelier and the checkpoint. Conan gets out by a cabin on the pass, and finds something that the culprit took away from the crime scene.

People

Kaoru Sasamori
	Deceased (fell) 24 years old

Takashi Sasamori
	28 years old Kaoru's older brother Cameraman

Hikari Tsuge
	Victim (bludgeoned) 33 years old Real name: Hikage Ritsu Kaoru's ex-lover Sculptor

Mariko Noguchi
	30 years old Hikari's manager

Kazumi Ishikura
	25 years old Kaoru's friend Ballerina

Police officer
	Tokyo MPD Police officer

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Just as Inspector Megure is about to take three people to the station for questioning, Conan knocks Kogoro out with his stun gun and starts deducing. When Conan saw Tsuge's corpse in the atelier, he noticed something was missing from the scene. Judging from the situation, most likely, the culprit took the weapon away after committing a crime.

Why did Tsuge wait three months until now to want to reveal Kaoru Sasamori's murderer? On Kaoru's funeral day, he could've revealed it when he quarreled with Takashi. Tsuge, through his own methods, tried to identify the culprit, and for that, he needed three months. About the air piece, the piece's title is "Demurrer," and it means "to object." When Takagi brought the object, a light stand, Conan (as Kogoro) requested, Conan orders Takagi to place it on top of the tape.

Hikari Tsuge is an anagram from Ritsu Hikage. Hikari Tsuge and Ritsu Hikage refer to light and shadow. The piece's title is also an anagram: "Demurrer" is "Murderer." Takagi has the light stand ready, so Conan (as Kogoro) tells Ran to lower the screen that's above the door and to turn off the lights. Conan tells Takagi to turn on the light with the light stand so when he turns it on, the shadow appears from the art piece. At first one, the piece seems nonsensical, but when the piece is rotated and the light is cast at a certain angle, it creates a shadow art of a ballerina.

Tsuge, through his art, wanted to identify the culprit. The culprit who murdered Kaoru Sasamori and Hikari Tsuge is Kazumi Ishikura. With just a ballerina's shadow, it isn't conclusive evidence. However, the culprit was afraid that the shadow might be seen, so the culprit took the light and ran off. Those actions became undeniable evidence to pinpoint the murderer.

To get to where the light was, Tsuge's corpse must be stepped over. But the area pooled with blood, so you couldn't take that path without leaving footprints. So the culprit had to do what Conan did: crawl under the work table, get the light, and take it away. Takashi's and Noguchi's body types would prevent them from fitting under the work table. The only person who could get through is the ballerina, Kazumi Ishikura.

In addition, when she was getting out her car earlier, she was soaking wet. According to Conan, the driver's seat was also soaking wet. In other words, Kazumi was already soaked before getting out of the car. She had gone out in the rain to get rid of the light stand.

Kazumi confesses and reveals that she and Tsuge had been planning to get married, or at least, that's what she thought. So when she heard he invited everyone, she thought she was going to announce the engagement, and because of that, she came earlier than the appointed time. Tsuge showed his shadow art to Kazumi and said he will confess who the murderer is. Kazumi had killed Kaoru, believing that Tsuge would marry her with Kaoru out of the way. While Tsuge was trying to convince Kazumi to turn herself in, she killed him with the hammer. As for why she didn't destroy the art piece, it was because she was happy. Even if it was meant to identify her, Tsuge had, for three months, only thought about her when making the object. When Kazumi thought about it, she couldn't break it.

After Conan and the others went home, Kogoro showed his own shadow art made out of beer cans. It showed a silhouette of Eri Kisaki.

Trivia

• Tsuge's car is a 1998-99 rally red Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V.
• Ishikura's car is a 2002 black saphire BMW 3 [E46]. The license plate number is 新宿 330, は 82-04 (Shinjuku 330, Ha 82-04).

BGM listing

#	Song Title	Romaji	Translation	OST
0:14 - 1:06	ディスソナンス	Disusonansu	Dissonance	Detective Conan "Full Score of Fear" Original Soundtrack
5:16 - 5:31	エスケープ！	Esukēpu!	Escape!	Detective Conan "Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure" Original Soundtrack
5:33 - 6:28	謎解き（その１）	Nazotoki (Sono 1)	Riddle Solution (Part 1)	Detective Conan Original Soundtrack 3
6:33 - 7:45	事件現場 （謎ver.）	Jiken Genba (Nazo ver.)	Scene of the Case (Mystery ver.)	Detective Conan Original Soundtrack 2
9:26 - 10:40	犯人のアジト （忍び込みver.)	Hannin no Ajito (Shinobikomi ver.)	The Culprit's Hideout (Creeping In ver.)	Detective Conan Original Soundtrack 2
10:54 - 12:30	ワッツ ハプニング	Wattsu Hapuningu	What's Happening	Detective Conan "Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure" Original Soundtrack
13:02 - 14:28	????
15:39 - 17:04	暗殺者のテーマ─忍び寄る魔手	Ansatsusha no Tēma - Shinobiyoru Mashu	Assassin's Theme - The Devil's Hand Approaches	Detective Conan "Captured in Her Eyes" Original Soundtrack
17:52 - 19:42	Need not to know.	Need not to know.	Need not to know.	Detective Conan "Captured in Her Eyes" Original Soundtrack
20:10 - 21:56	コナンの直感	Konan no Chokkan	Conan's Intuition	Detective Conan "Countdown to Heaven" Original Soundtrack
23:35 - 23:58	アレステッド	Aresuteddo	Arrested	Detective Conan "Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure" Original Soundtrack

In other languages

Language	Title	Translation
Catalan (Catalan dub)	El missatge del client	The client's message
Italian	Il messaggio del cliente	The client's message
Thai	ข้อความจากผู้ว่าจ้าง	The Client's Message
Vietnamese	Lời nhắn gửi của người ủy thác	Message from the trustee

See also

• Season 18