The Jet-Black Mystery Train

Chronology
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Episode 701-704 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
Information
Title:	The Jet-Black Mystery Train
Japanese title:	漆黒の特急 (Shikkoku no Mystery Train)
Original airdate:	July 13, 2013 (Departure) July 20, 2013 (Tunnel) July 27, 2013 (Junction) August 3, 2013 (Final Destination)
Season:	22
Manga source:	Volume 78: Files 1-7 (818-824)
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ai Haibara Gin Vodka Vermouth Shuichi Akai Professor Agasa Detective Boys Sonoko Suzuki Ran Mouri Kaitou Kid Jirokichi Suzuki Masumi Sera Kogoro Mouri Scar Akai Tooru Amuro Subaru Okiya Shiho Miyano Elena Miyano Suguru Itakura Yukiko Kudo Konosuke Jii
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	The Conductor's Testimony (Departure)
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Organizer:	Umesaburo Sagawa
Storyboard:	Umesaburo Sagawa
Episode director:	701 Akira Yoshimura
Animation director:	701 Masatomo Sudo (supervisor), Seiji Muta (supervisor), Nobuyuki Iwai
Music
Opening song:	Q&A
Closing song:	Hitomi no Melody

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ai Haibara Gin Vodka Vermouth Shuichi Akai (background) Professor Agasa Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Sonoko Suzuki Ran Mouri Kaitou Kid Jirokichi Suzuki Masumi Sera Kogoro Mouri Scar Akai 100px Tooru Amuro Subaru Okiya Shiho Miyano Elena Miyano (voice) Suguru Itakura (flashback) Yukiko Kudo Konosuke Jii

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch Hang Glider Cape

Case

Situation

Departure

Vermouth is on the phone with Gin. Vermouth passes on the information that Bourbon came across, which that Sherry was hiding in Gunma and was going to travel on the Bell Tree Express, a train own by Suzuki family which hosts a special mystery onboard. Vermouth recalls her encounter with Conan and her promise to let Sherry go. She justifies the upcoming attack on Sherry as Bourbon's job and asks Gin not to interfere before the train reaches its destination.

At the Bell Tree Express, Conan, Ran, Sonoko, Agasa, and the Detective Boys including Haibara prepare to board the train. Haibara still has a cold and has her cold mask on to hide her identity on the platform. The Detective Boys learn that the train usually runs only once a year, but this year will be different because Jirokichi Suzuki plans to run it a month later in another attempt to lure out Kaitou Kid. Sonoko also plans to place her love letter to Kid in the train car so he can receive it. Suddenly Masumi Sera shows up, and she says she is interested in the deduction quiz that will take place in the train. Haibara notices her and cover herself with her jacket's hood.

Next, the group witnesses the arrival of more passengers. Satoru Andou of 8C is the first to arrive, and he is traveling with a client's picture with a solid gold frame. Taisaku Noto (8A) and Mari Idenami (8E) show their familiarity with the conductor. Natsue Komino (8D), an old lady in a wheelchair, is accompanied by her maid Hiruka Sumitomo. And lastly, the angry Etsuto Murobashi appears (7B), and he accosts the conductor to demand his usual room in car 8. Kogoro (8B) introduces himself to the group after adjusting his mustache into the style of Hercule Poirot, explaining to him that his daughter, Ran, is a friend of the owner of the train, so he got a room on the luxury car. The passengers show shock reaction upon hearing his name.

In Agasa's room, 6B, Conan and the Detective Boys are chatting. Someone knocks on their door. They find a mystery card lying there, telling them they have received the role of detective that will investigate the murder which will occur in room 7B. The group (excluding Agasa) goes to 7B and witnesses a supposed murder incident. A masked man with hood shoots Etsuto Murobashi. They run after the murderer, but he gets away.

Later, they run into a train conductor, and learn that the quiz is suppose to happen an hour later. Conan, with a shocked expression, runs back to 7B only to found out that Ran, Sonoko, and Sera are there instead, and to complicate thing further, Ran's group tell them they're in 8B. It seems that after the murder happened, Car 7 disappear into thin air.

Meanwhile, Haibara, who's slightly behind Conan group, follows them half-heartly, show a strong reaction when Scar Akai leaves one of the rooms. But Scar Akai, who is dressed in a formal outfit, does not notice her and walks in the opposite direction. Haibara catches a glimpse of him.

Conan tries to convince the train conductor that something was wrong with the mystery murder that took place to no avail, nevertheless, they learn more about the nature of the train. Passengers can ring a bell which turns on a light above their door to summon the carriage attendant who sits in the hall. Additionally, each car has no indication of its number inside, only from outside can one tell the car number, a feature added by Jirokichi Suzuki to make the train more mysterious. Meanwhile, Haibara recalls her encounter with Scar Akai a moment ago. She thinks he has the "feeling" of Dai Moroboshi but doesn't understand why he has a burn mark. Conan then recalls seeing Sera holding a card when they first ran into Ran's cabin. They go back to 7B and confront the girls with the correct conclusion: everything happened in 7B all along and the girls had lied that the room was 8B. Ran's party received the role of accomplices (assigned by the card that Sera held) They temporarily switched their room from 8B to 7B with Murobashi (who will wait in Ran's room, 8B) while the incident happened as part of the trick. As the Detective Boys followed Conan into the room, Sera notices that Haibara is with the group, and she says she wants to have a word with Haibara as well. Haibara starts to look scared, but the conversation is cut short because Scar Akai had been lurking outside the door. Sera demands to know who was there, but Scar Akai hides himself before Sera sees him. After the trick is revealed, they return to Ran's original room, 8B, to inform Murobashi that their trick got exposed. They try to open the door, but it is chained shut and Murobashi is "sleeping" on the couch. Just then, Sera and Conan notice the gunpowder smell and break the chain link to open the door. They found Etsuto Murobashi was killed in a sealed room!

Murder
	Location: Bell-tree express Car 8 - Cabin B Victim: Etsuto Murobashi Cause of death: Gunshot wound to the temple Suspects: Satoru Andou, Mari Idenami, Taisaku Noto, Natsue Komino, and Hiruka Sumitomo

People

Satoru Andou
	41 years old Car 8 - Cabin C

Mari Idenami
	33 years old Car 8 - Cabin E

Taisaku Noto
	52 years old Car 8 - Cabin A

Natsue Komino
	75 years old Car 8 - Cabin D

Hiruka Sumitomo
	37 years old Car 8 - Cabin D

Etsuto Murobashi
	Victim (gunshot) 39 years old Car 7 - Cabin B

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

The culprit is Satoru Andou.

Evidence

• 

  Satoru Andou boards with a large and heavy suitcase. This contains the folding mirror he uses for the trick.

• 

  Satoru Andou was the assistant of Etsuto Murobashi earlier.

• 

  Once the train entered a tunnel, the attendant heard a prerecorded call bell sound and went to room 8A because their call light was burnt out. Satoru Andou had snuck onto the train earlier and broken the light.

• 

  While the attendant spoke with Taisaku Noto in 8A, the still living Murobashi leaned out to see where the attendant was and sent a message to Satoru Andou to come.

• 

  The attendant then rushed to see Mari Idenami in 8E because pushed the call bell when she heard a watch alarm in her room. Mari Idenami later finds a watch had been hidden in her room and timed to go off when the train entered the tunnel.

• 

  When the attendant answers the door to 8E, down the hall is a mirror image of the attendant and the open door.

• 

  Etsuto Murobashi is holding a silenced handgun. Satoru Andou intended it to look like a suicide, but did not realize it is too awkward to hold a silenced handgun to one's head at the temple.

• 

  Across from Etsuto Murobashi is a single gunshot hole in the couch. Sera could see it by looking in the door. Satoru Andou asked Murobashi to fire this shot so his gun would look used.

• 

  The door to room 8B has six links, rather than five like the rest of the rooms, meaning it could be locked from the outside.

Conclusion

Amuro opens the large suitcase Andou brought with him and reveals it is a folding mirror that fits the door, with a blob of brown paint placed to hide the number of the door. Andou confesses to the crime.

Motive

Satoru Andou wanted retribution against Etsuto Murobashi because his wife was killed in the fire that Etsuto Murobashi set in order to steal valuable artworks from the mansion unnoticed. Initially Andou was going to force Murobashi to confess to the rest of the passengers, but Murobashi gleefully recalling his exciting escape from the fire enraged Andou.

---

While the deduction show still continues, Scar Akai enters the room belonging to the mysterious lady and throws her luggage out the window. The mysterious woman appears at the door and tells Scar Akai that the dress in the luggage was her favorite. The mysterious woman reveals herself to be Yukiko Kudo by naming Scar Akai as her old friend, "Sharon". Scar Akai rips his mask off and confirms Yukiko's deduction that he is none other than Vermouth.

Yukiko boasts to Vermouth that they got a hold of Vermouth's weak points, which is Vermouth that doesn't want anyone, including her partner on the train, to know that Conan and Haibara shrunk from the APTX 4869. Also, Vermouth had ordered software from CG programmer, Suguru Itakura that probably is related to the de-aging. Yukiko also showed her surprise that Vermouth had a fight with Itakura on the film set even though Sharon is known for her consideration for the staff. Vermouth responds to Yukiko's boast by saying she is the one who saw through Yukiko's team's plan. Vermouth deducts that they will try to fake Shiho Miyano's death so the Black Organization will let go of her for good. Vermouth explains then that Haibara can't be shown dead in her child body because it will cause the Detective Boys to panic and cry, which would bring the Black Organization's attention to them as Sherry's acquaintances. But if Haibara dies in her original body (played by Yukiko with makeup) and those who know her secret keep quiet about that, then the Detective Boys will be none the wiser. This scene will also result in heavily checking the passengers' belongings upon disembarkment and the Black Organization won't be able to take "Sherry's" body away to confirm her identity. Vermouth tells Yukiko that's not only Yukiko's luggage that she disposed of, but the bullet-proof vest with blood contraption that she hid in the basin closet as well. Yukiko say the two are even because even Vermouth sees though her plan but hasn't found Haibara. Vermouth reveals her trick to smoke Haibara out by detonating mutilple smoke bombs she placed earlier. (The bombs can be seen under the attendent's seat and also in the crime scene.)

At the deduction scene, Amuro is the first to notice the smoke, concludes the train is on fire and tells everyone to evacuate to the front of the train. The suspects, who are pyrophobics after surviving the mansion fire incident, become panicked and run. But Conan has to wake up Kogoro and urges Komino and Sumitomo of room D to hurry up and leave. Next, Vermouth correctly deduces that Haibara won't escape the fire to the front like everyone else, but will go in the opposite direction. Then Haibara is shown, now in her original body, running through the smoke past the victim's room (7B). A voice from behind states that Shiho is "as expected of Hell's Angel's daughter" that she is "very much alike". The voice belongs to Tooru Amuro, who introduces himself to Shiho with his codename, Bourbon.

Ran meets Kogoro and asks him where Haibara and Sera are (she assumes he'd know because they should pass his deduction site at some point), but Kogoro doesn't know. The train conductor tries to calm the passengers down from panic about the fire and tells them that the staff has yet to know the full details on the situation but will try to find out as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Vermouth continues to predict Sherry's movement that she will head to the back of train and be killed by the Organization in a silent fashion, rather than involving her friends. Conan then phones Yukiko to inform her that he can't find Haibara anywhere. Vermouth grabs Yukiko's phone away and impersonates her on the phone, telling Conan that Haibara probably escaped to the front like everyone else. Vermouth then receives a message from Bourbon confirming that Sherry is indeed in carriage 8. She then boasts to Yukiko that's it's her team that has the advantage.

In carriage 8, Bourbon tells Sherry he has met her parents and sister. Sherry says she has heard about him and knows he is a rival to Moroboshi Dai, Akemi's lover. Bourbon says Dai was an FBI mole, as he suspected. When he heard that Dai/Akai was dead, he didn't believe it at first and enlists Vermouth's help to disguise himself as Akai, hanging around people who knew Akai to observe their reactions. However, this time he had Vermouth disguise as Akai in place of him. He comes to the conclusion that Akai is really dead.

At the Nagoya train station, Gin comments that the presence of the Jirokichi and Aichi police only make the explosion seem like an attempt on their lives, which covers the Black Orgainzation's intention. He then becomes surprised when Vodka informs him Vermouth was asking for more explosives for the plan, without telling him the purpose. 

Bourbon, meanwhile, reveals his plan to take Sherry back to the Black Organization alive. He'll have her step inside the storage hold, knock her out, bomb the carriage link to seperate the storage hold form the rest of the train, then have a helicopter on his side take her away. Sherry refuses cooperate, stating that the storage hold is full of explosives, causing Bourbon to realize that Vermouth had altered the plan, wanting to kill Sherry from the start. Sherry steps away behind the door, while a mysterious figure appears behind Bourbon, obscured by smoke. Bourbon asks if the figure is Vermouth; the mysterious figure throws a hand grenade at him. Bourbon, surprised at this, asks who the person is. The figure is revealed to the readers (but not to Bourbon) that he has Shuichi Akai's face, without the scar, and dresses in an outfit like those of Okiya Subaru's, wearing Sera's hat. The grenade explodes, interruping their one-sided conversation. The storage hold is seperated from the train, and seconds later, it explodes, triggered by Vermouth's cellphone.

Vermouth explains to Yukiko she purposefully detonated the second bomb having heard the first one (which confirmed that the storage hold was separated from the train), making sure the explosion wouldn't cause the train to derail. Vermouth leaves the room while Yukiko begins frantically calling for Haibara, but she stops immediately after Vermouth is out of sight. Bourbon is left wondering who the figure was, but he seems to have an idea.

The train stops and the passengers disembark. Vermouth phones Gin about the situation, in which Bourbon claims he saw Sherry die in the explosion; Gin shows doubt about Sherry's survival. Gin points out that Vermouth wanted an explosion on the train so the train couldn't reach its destination at Nagoya (where Gin was waiting). Vermouth tells him they have to be questioned, along with other passengers and that he should be satisfied enough hearing that Sherry is dead. Vermouth hangs up and overhears the Detective Boys talk to Agasa (who has Haibara sleeping on his back) about how they found Haibara in room 7B. What happened was that Haibara got dizzy after taking the drug for her cold and decided to rest there. The room was empty due to it being a crime scene. Vermouth realizes Yukiko's team figured that Haibara would go there, so they waited for her there. Conan's phone call to Yukiko was just an act to keep Vermouth in Yukiko's room while they took Haibara to saftey. But Vermouth can't figure out who the woman who was supposedly killed in front of Bourbon is.

Vermouth then figured out Kaitou Kid's involvement after overhearing Sonoko voice her frustration to Ran that Kaitou Kid won't be able to board the train after the explosion. Vermouth also overheard Conan on the phone with Kaitou Kid, apologizing to him for draging him into a situation with guns and bombs. Kaitou Kid is shown leaving the exploding train on his hang-glider, the gadget Conan deduced Kid would hide in the storage room in the first place. It is revealed in a flashback that Conan had deduced Kid's identity. Kid disguised as Hiroka Sumitomo (the maid) and had his accomplice disguised as Natsue Komino (The wheelchair lady). His accomplice, heavily hinted to be Konosuke Jii, can't mimic the voice of the lady, and relies on Kid to voice both of them. He just mouths the words (similar to when Conan solves case as Agasa). So when Conan has Sumitomo run in the corridor, Komino can't speak. Conan has the advantage of being short (looking from below) and saw through Jii's act easily, as well as their reaction about the fire, which wouldn't match the reaction of a pyrophobic.

Conan brings up the point that he purposefully overlooked Kid's actions to avoid being involved with the case as leverage to ask Kid for help. Conan shows him a video of Shiho Miyano and has Kid disguise as her. Conan tells him to be careful because guns and explosives are involved. Conan finishes his conversation by asking Kid to return his cellphone to the detective agency. Kid, annoyed, comments that Conan should be in debt to him for helping, rather than the other way around.

Because of the explosion, the train is brought to an early stop and the passengers disembark so they can be questioned by the police at the station. Konosuke Jii, Kaitou Kid's assistant, has removed his old woman disguise because he is unable to speak without Kid to assist him. Sera tries to figure out what's going on as Ran return her hat which she found in the corridor. Bourbon watches them silently and then asks Vermouth to give him the files from before and after Akai's death one more time. Vermouth agrees and Bourbon thinks he must reopen his investigation from "square one". Lastly, Subaru Okiya, watching Vermouth and Bourbon from behind, opens one of his eyes for the first time to reveal his Shuichi Akai-like eyes.

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Character background revelations

• Tooru Amuro is revealed to be the Black Organization member Bourbon.
• Scar Akai is revealed to be a disguise used by Bourbon and Vermouth to impersonate Shuichi Akai to ensure that the real Akai is dead by judging the reactions of Akai's sister and close friends. Bourbon had been using the disguise prior to boarding the train, but he had Vermouth take the role because she can imitate Akai's voice and block Masumi Sera from interfering.
• Masumi Sera is Shuichi Akai's younger sister.
• Subaru Okiya is an ally of Conan's and his heavily hinted to be the real Shuichi Akai. The man who looks like Akai who drops the grenade is wearing Subaru's clothes and had taken Masumi's hat which had been in her room when Okiya returned Sera.

Important event summaries

• Vermouth reports to Gin that Shiho Miyano has been killed. Although she later realizes she had been tricked, Vermouth keeps this discovery a secret.
• Yukiko deduces that Vermouth has some vital reason to hide from the rest of the Black Organization that Shiho and Conan have deaged due to APTX 4869. She also confirms that Vermouth was involved in trying to force Suguru Itakura to finish a special project he had stopped.
• Yukiko wins the bet she made with Vermouth, with the stakes being that Vermouth had to give up on hunting Shiho completely.
• Bourbon, who had earlier concluded Akai was truly dead, begins to second-guess his deductions. He asks Vermouth for detailed information from before and after Akai's death so he can begin from square one.
• Conan discovers Tooru Amuro is Bourbon, which Bourbon does not realize.
• Elena and Atsushi Miyano had worked on a project for the Black Organization called Silver Bullet which ultimately caused them to leave Shiho and Akemi. Shiho realizes that she should have never tried to complete the project. This solves the mystery of what Elena said on the final part of the tape left for Shiho's 18th birthday.
• Kaitou Kid's heist has been postponed because the Belltree Express where Jirokichi Suzuki's challenge would have been issued is under investigation. Kaitou Kid now considers Conan to be in his debt.

Gallery

• 

  Mystery Train Pass Ring

• 

  Mystery Train

• 

  Gin hears Vermouth's report that Sherry will board the Belltree Express train to Nagoya.

• 

  Gin is pleased that he will get an opportunity to kill Sherry once more.

• 

  Vermouth regrets that she is breaking her promise to her "Silver Bullet" to leave Haibara alone, but Bourbon forced the issue.

See also

• Season 22