Difference between revisions of "Volume 22"

Kaede Katagiri
	22 years old; Kikuhito Morizono's fiancé;

Akio Shigematsu
	Victim (stabbed); 51 years old; Morizono family butler;

	Volume 22
	Information
Release date:	February 18, 1999
Chapters:	212-221
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-125492-6
Publisher:	Shogakukan
English release date:	March 18, 2008
English ISBN:	ISBN 1-4215-1674-8
English Publisher:	Viz Media
	Featured Detective & Keyhole
; Shozo Totsugawa	; Yusaku Kudo
	Aoyama's death & Conan side images

Latest revision as of 10:43, 5 April 2024

Chronology
‹ Volume 21	List of Chapters • List of Cases	Volume 23 ›

Volume 22 was released on February 18, 1998 in Japan.

Cast

Characters

Natsue Hatamoto (background)

Gadgets

Chapters

Wedding Murder Case

Anime Episode 141-142: The Night Before the Wedding Locked Room Case

File 212 - A Matching Set

Kazuha sees the body and starts screaming; this attracts the rest of the family to the two rooms. Katagiri is terrified by the body and falls unconscious; her fiancé, on the other hand, seems completely unbothered by Shigematsu’s death. Kogoro orders everyone to stay out of the room as he calls the police, while Conan and Heiji confirm that all the windows in the two rooms are locked. Since Ran has not seen anyone jump out of the mansion, and the keychain on which hangs the key to the door of the two rooms is found on the body, Conan and Heiji conclude that they are facing a locked room murder case. Yurie asks why the possibility of suicide can be ruled out, and Heiji explains that the stab wound is fatal and leads to immediate death, so in case of a suicide the murder weapon should be close to the body. However, in reality, the weapon is nowhere to be found.

At this point, Kikuhiko says that despite the butler’s death, his wedding shall go forward as planned. This disrespectful decision stuns the rest of the people present, but Kikuhito apparently cannot care less, as he insists on this decision and comments that letting the wedding go forward can actually console the soul of Kigematsu. This earns him a punch in the face from Sakuraba. So much force is used that Kikuhiko is sent flying; he eventually slams into a window, breaking the glass and suffering injuries on his face. As he attempts to get up and take revenge, his father, Mikio, orders him to exercise restraint. Mikio then hammers him for his shamelessness, and also makes it very clear to Sakuraba that he disapproves of his use of physical force against his master.

The police arrive, prompting Mikio to head to the front door of the mansion to admit them. Meanwhile, Conan and Heiji notice that Rebecca is, for some reason, in the room as well; she was hiding behind Shigematsu’s body until now.

The police join them in the investigation. Takagi reports that all other servants except for Sakuraba were having dinner at the time of the murder, for which they could not have killed him. So, the only suspects are Mikio, Kikuhiko, Yurie, Katagiri and Sakuraba. As for the murder weapon, since it is not in the room, Megure orders his men to search the mansion and the gardens thoroughly. Conan and Heiji accompany a few police officers to the garden, but not to look for the murder weapon: they appear more interested in understanding the case. They both have noticed four suspicious things, listed below:

The murderer did not leave the weapon in the room. If he did, maybe the police will think that Shigematsu committed suicide.
The murderer dragged Shigematsu’s body from the dark room to the well-lit one.
The murderer only turned on the lights in one room.
Rebecca was in the room at the time of the murder.

As they ponder, they see Sakuraba asking a police officer whether he can join the search for the murder weapon as well. That officer refuses, and Kikuhiko, who has silently approached Sakuraba, avenges the facepunch; he throws Sakuraba onto the ground, and orders him to stop creating problems. As he leaves gleefully, Kazuha and Ran help Sakuraba get up; it is then when Kazuha notices that he and Katagiri are wearing the same necklace. This draws the attention of Conan and Heiji; they believe that this is not a coincidence, and that it is key to solving the case.

File 213 - The Evidence...

The police fail to find the murder weapon after a thorough search, so Megure orders them to do it all over again. Kogoro suggests that perhaps a burglar intruded into the mansion, was caught by the butler, killed him and escaped; Takagi and Heiji dismiss this possibility, saying that the security system of the mansion is excellent, and that it would not make sense for a burglar to devise a complex plan and make a locked room. Heiji also reasons that since a lot of blood must have splattered out of the body, the clothes that the murderer was wearing must be heavily stained, for which if the police can find the weapon, they might find bloodstained clothes as well. He then asks Megure about the alibi of the five suspects; it turns out that none of them has a valid one.

Presently, a crime scene investigator informs Megure that there is a bloodstain on the latch of the window of the room. Megure (and Heiji) thus approach the window; after a careful examination, they deduce that the bloodstain was left when the murderer touched the latch with his blood-stained glove. This implies that, perhaps, the murderer left the room through the balcony (that the window leads to). Heiji thus goes to the balcony to investigate. Conan is already there, and he has found a broken piece of glass (broken because Kikuhiko slammed into that window a while ago) with a tiny hole through it. They both believe that this is an important piece of clue, and thus start searching for “the thing” that must appear on the balcony. They are interrupted by Mikio, though; he asks Megure whether the police can return to him the body of Shigematsu; he was a close friend of the couple, and Mikio thinks that it is pitiful for his body to just sit in the middle of the room (Megure, of course, has to decline this request, as autopsy has to be performed first). This prompts Heiji to mention that, according to his mother, Shigamatsu was actually the one that Mikio’s wife loved and the reason why she would come to Morizono family’s mansion so frequently (when she was a young adult). However, Mikio thought that his future wife came for him. Under this belief, he proposed to her; she was, little by little, overwhelmed by his courtship, and since all the parents approved of their getting together, they married in the end.

Conan understands the significance of this story, and thus begins thinking. Heiji interrupts him and comments that the situation involving Katagiri, Sakuraba and Kakuhiko bears some resemblance to the story. Conan seemingly agrees with this analysis, but he chooses to not continue talking about this topic; he insteads asks whether Heiji has found “the thing”. As the answer is negative, Conan suggests that Heiji, with the help of a rope, try to jump off the balcony to reach that of the room below. Heij manages to do so easily; additionally, on the balcony of the room on the second floor, he is able to see something hanging on the branches of a tree in the garden. They immediately head there to determine what that object is (after an incident in which Conan fell from the balcony and survived only because Sakuraba arrived in time to save him); it turns out to be a bloodstained shirt tied up by a long, thin string. By loosening the string, the detectives discover that the shirt is coating a kitchen knife and a pair of gloves (both, of course, have a large amount of blood on their surfaces). Conan also notices the presence of a piece of one-sided tape on one end of the string; with this, the detectives are confident that they know who the murderer is and how the room was locked. But something doesn't feel right: a lot of details are still unexplained.

Rain starts pouring down, and Ran and Kazuha suggest that unless they want to be completely soaked, Conan and Heiji should get back to the mansion. The word “rain” makes them think about “rain shutter”, and this in turn makes them realize that the truth behind the murder is actually different from their previous conjectures. Under this improved theory, the identity of the murderer changes, and definite evidence is lacking. Therefore, Conan and Heiji decide to devise a trap so that the murderer will hand over the evidence himself (or herself). This begins with the two detectives summoning everyone into the room where the murder took place and declaring Sakuraba to be the murderer.

File 214 - The Last Laugh

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People

Yuji Sakuraba
	23 years old Morizono family servant

Yurie Morizono
	28 years old Eldest Morizono daughter

Mikio Morizono
	57 years old Head of the Morizono family

Kikuhito Morizono
	26 years old Eldest Morizono son Kaede's fiancé

Major events

Ran and Kazuha's friendship grows after Ran quickly changes shirts to prove to Kazuha that she didn't wear the striped pattern because Heiji did.
Kazuha is still very jealous of Ran, and still thinks she has feelings for Heiji, after finding out that Ran and Heiji are wearing the same style striped shirt. Kazuha's feelings for Heiji are once again briefly explored.

North Star Murder Case

Anime Episode 144-145: The North Star No.3 Express Leaving Ueno

Characters introduced

Kyohei Nishimura
	Inspector from Hokkaido Prefecture Police

File 215 - The Northbound Train

File 216 - Search The Train!?

File 217 - To Be Continued...

File 218 - The Last Station

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