Volume 29

Chronology
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Volume 29
Information
Release date:	September 18, 2000
Chapters:
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-125499-3
Publisher:	Shogakukan
English release date:	May 19, 2009
English ISBN:	ISBN 1-4215-2197-0
English Publisher:	Viz Media
Featured Detective & Keyhole
Charlie Chan Midori Megure
Aoyama's death & Conan side images

Volume 29 was released on September 18, 2000 in Japan.

Cast

Characters

Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Sonoko Suzuki Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Miwako Sato Midori Megure Hiroshi Agasa Ai Haibara Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Gin Vodka Vermouth Pisco (background) Akemi Miyano (background) Jodie Starling Tomoaki Araide Ninzaburo Shiratori Kazunobu Chiba Heiji Hattori Kazuha Toyama Goro Otaki Yoko Okino Shinichi Kudo (background) Minami Takayama Shiina Nagano

Gadgets

Gadgets
Stun-Gun Wristwatch Detective Boys Badge Earring Cellphone

Girl Clubbing Case

File 285 - The Suspicion

Tae Aizawa worked at the Haido Store and was waiting in the parking lot for her boyfriend Noriyuki Shirakawa, a restaurant chef, to introduce her to his father, Haruyoshi, the store's owner. Noriyuki is being solaced by Yuri Konno, a waitress of his restaurant and a good friend of him. The police asks the parking lot's watchman, Yoshio Sadagane, if he saw anyone suspect around there before the murder, which is not the case. Ran thinks something's not quite right concerning the victim's appearance. The police commissioner Matsumoto comes along and asks Megure if he still remembers "that painful case". Conan tells everyone that, given that most victims of the killer were rather lightly dressed for the winter season, it's possible that they were in a car just before being in the street, and that the murderer has probably something to do with cars. Sato says last year Aizawa accidentally killed a boy, Akira Sakurai, in the parking lot, as her platform boots prevented her from braking at the right moment. Being minor at the time of the deeds, she received a conditional sentence and was released afterwards. Megure scolds Sato for constantly wishing to play the bait, recalling it's way too dangerous. Sonoko wants to go to the bathroom and asks for Kogoro's car keys. As she bends to take her handbag, the killer's dark figure is glaring at her and especially at her boots. The closest bathroom being out of service, Sonoko hurries to the upper floors' bathrooms as the store is about to close. Conan meanwhile notices the victim is wearing shoes too big for her feet. He then deduces the murderer's identity as Sonoko, on her way back to the parking lot, finds herself in complete darkness as the lights are switched off, and she's being followed by the serial killer.

File 286 - An Unexpected Motive

  Show spoilers »

Conan reveals the killer chases ganguro girls with platform boots, as these were responsible for the death of Akira Sakurai. Sato remembers Akira's divorced and violent father insisting on that point without being heard at the end of the day by the judges. Conan suggests that man's surname is "Sadagane", which means that Yoshio Sadagane, the watchman, is the serial killer. His position in the parking lot enabled him to check the shoes of any person getting off their car. Moreover, the platform boots add around 10 centimeters to their wearer's size, explaining why the victims claimed having been mugged by a small person, which is actually not the case. The police didn't notice it when the girls went for their statements at the station afterwards, as they were wearing more formal shoes. Sadagane applied to be a watchman on this parking lot in particular as he wasn't given the name and occupation of the minor responsible for the accident, and therefore had to stand every day in the parking lot in wait for the girl to come back for some shopping one day or another. He might have tracked the three previous victims after spotting them at the parking lot too. He started assaulting every ganguro girl when he lost patience, not seeing Aizawa.

Sadagane is confirmed to be Akira's dad but has vanished and Conan gets scared when being told by Ran that Sonoko still hasn't come back from the bathroom, remembering she wears platform boots as well. In the stairs, Sonoko is indeed assaulted by Sadagane but avoids the bat, screams and flings her phone at Sadagane's face, disclosing his identity to Sonoko, who runs away. Conan realises Sonoko has been mistaken for a ganguro and is being chased by Sadagane. They try to locate her thanks to her mobile phone, who fell near a print club machine. The police rushes then to the store's restaurant floor. Sonoko stumbles and the killer comes closer, telling her she's a demon like the others, with a false innocent face, killing children, and deserving nothing else than death. Takagi fails to switch on the lights as a sudden storm makes the power supply trip out. Sonoko shrieks but manages to avoid the blow, that broke a display case and knocked over strange round items with a rolling noise. Conan, Sato and Ran believe it to be a broken aquarium with pebbles dropping on the floor, and they rush to the pet department.

Megure hesitates to follow them and reads carefully the information sign. Just as Sadagane is about to kill Sonoko, telling her he just wanted to humble her a little but since she saw his face, she must die, Megure steps in and receives the blow on his head. He had guessed the noises were actually dropping stone go pieces, and hurried to the games' department. He tells Sadagane he's going too far in trying to kill an innocent girl, just as he did with the others, but this won't rise his son from the dead, it's just pure madness. Sadagane calms down and cries, explaining he just wanted them to apologise and remove their boots who killed his son. When Conan and co turn up, lights are switched on again and Megure's temple is seriously bleeding, but the latter says it's an old injury that should have remained hidden.

Later on, Conan and co, along with Matsumoto, visit Megure at the Police Hospital. Matsumoto tells them Megure wears a hat to conceal an old injury he got during a hard case twenty years ago. Megure was a young policeman investigating a serial killer tracking "furyo-style" high school girls for some reason, with his car, at night. At first, he was just jostling them, but soon one died and he started to kill every furyo he would meet on the road, to the point police had to seriously deter furyo girls from wearing their outfits. This happened and accidents stopped, but a young girl who had seen her best friend killed by the mad driver wanted to play the bait to attract the driver one last time and have him arrested by Megure, despite police trying to convince her to give up that idea. She insisted, and Megure had to be sent to her to protect her. The mad driver showed up and knocked Megure and the girl over. He was later arrested but Megure was injured at the head and the girl everywhere, on the brink of dying. Since then, Megure is reluctant to use baits in police actions and hides his injury under his hat, for none to ask him ever about it. Hopefully, the girl survived, and she married Megure, becoming Midori Megure.

People

Ryouko Mizutani
	Victim (beaten - injured)

Hitomi Endou
	Victim (beaten - injured)

Michiko Ishiguro
	Victim (beaten - injured)

Tae Aizawa
	Victim (beaten) 20 years old Former Haido Department Store clerk

Noriyuki Shirakawa
	24 years old Chef

Yuri Konno
	24 years old Waitress

Yoshio Sadakane
	43 years old Security guard

Haruyoshi Shirakawa
	53 years old Haido Department Store owner

Akira Sakurai
	Deceased

Bus Hijacking Case

Characters introduced

Shuichi Akai
	Mysterious man

File 287 - The Unseen Horror

Gin and Vodka are sitting together at a bar. A waiter comes to them with two drinks at the table. The waiter is the disguised Vermouth. They talk about the mission of her.

The Detective Boys and Hiroshi Agasa want to make a ski trip. On the way there, they take the bus and Tomoaki Araide and Jodie Starling get on, too. Shuichi Akai is also one of the passengers. Ai Haibara suddenly feel the aura of an black organization member, this is strongly hinted to be Jodie Starling. Suddenly the bus is hijacked by two armed men. The hijacker calls the office of the bus service and demand the release of Kunio Yashima, who was arrested for robbery.

Conan is immediately clear that this must be his accomplices, who want the preys of the robbery because they are not know where Yashima has hidden them. With its inconspicuous Earring Cellphone Conan tries to inform the police, but in vain, as the kidnappers stands with a drawn weapon before him. Someone has betrayed him.

File 288 - Danger Signal

The police were informed by the bus hijacking and the demands of the kidnappers. In the bus the kidnappers dressed in ski suits lay the skis carefully into the path of the bus. Conan Edogawa tires unseen to check up the skis, but again one of the kidnappers noticed and threatened him with a gun. Tomoaki Araide rose protectively in front of him.

Conan guesses that inside the skis are bombs. Ai Haibara is so shocked by the presence of a member organization that she doesn’t notice much about the kidnapping Conan asks himself, why the kidnapper has noticed him. He reasons that they have an accomplice behind him. Unfortunately Conan doesn’t know who exactly the accomplice of the hijackers is. It will be Shuichi Akai, Miharu Tomino or Yasuhiko Machida.

The kidnappers instruct the bus driver to drive the bus in the Kobotoke tunnel and reduce the speed. Conan develops a plan. He asks in a note to Jodie Starling for a lipstick and informed the Detective Boys, what he's up to do. In addition, he has found out who the accomplice of the hijackers.

File 289 - Concealed Beneath The Truth

  Show spoilers »

Conan pretends coughing and takes his detective badge, preparing to call the DB. Vermouth seems to have noticed his plan with the lipstick and wonders how the "Cool Guy" will solve the matter. Megure prepares a plan with the Yamanashi Police to catch the hijackers but Sato warns him the bus entered the tunnel and suddenly slowed down. The robbers' plan is to switch clothes with Dr. Araide and Shuichi Akai. They'll pass themselves off as mere bus hostages, pretending they got off the bus by order of the hijackers, while making police believe the true robbers are the one with the ski clothes sitting in the middle of the bus. Of course the passengers will quickly deny it but the hijackers will buy time. They'll pretend to be the three hostages that were supposed to be freed after Yashima's release, which is why they take with them a third "hostage", their accomplice, Kiharu Tomino, the woman chewing gum, and tell the bus driver he'll have her death on his conscience if he doesn't keep accelerating the bus after they leave, for the police to keep tracking the bus without knowing what really occurred. Conan remarks a strange watch on Tomino's wrist.

Just as Conan had thought, the hijackers had actually decided not to spare the hostages but rather to blow up the entire bus with everyone inside except them, to keep the truth silent, and afterwards they'll tell the police they were freed hostages and will lie about the real facts and then vanish into thin air. They'll say the robbers accidentally blew up the bus as when they left it was panic aboard. And when the forensics will find two men in ski suit among rubble, it will just confirm their statements. Which is why they slowed down in the dark tunnel, in order to change clothes without being seen by the police. Conan takes advantage of the dark as well to call the DB and explain his plan to stop the hijackers.

Once out of the tunnel, the bus driver is commanded to speed up. Conan tells the truth to all passengers about the robbers actually planning to kill everybody with a bomb because they all saw their faces. The robbers turn around and see Agasa and Conan holding the ski bag in the air with something written inside out on it with Jodie's lipstick. One of the robbers try to shoot Conan but is interrupted by his partner who fears it may touch the bomb. Conan shouts to the driver who glances at his rear-view mirror and reads "STOP". He brakes abruptly and makes the bus skid at 180 degrees, throwing everyone off balance, including the robbers. Ayumi holds the old man Yasuhiko Machida, and Mitsuhiko and Genta hold each other.

Conan then rushes to a robber who targets him, but before Shuichi Akai could knock him down, Conan shoots a tranquilising dart to him, astounding Akai. Conan asks Araide to pinion Tomino's arms as she is the accomplice and her watch contains the bomb trigger mechanism. As the other robber tries to shoot Conan, Jodie gives him a knee strike in the stomach and lies him flat on his back, neutralising him, pretending she lost her balance due to the sudden braking. The robber tries to shoot her but his gun is blocked, and Jodie reveals she locked her Tokalev gun's hammer by moving it on central position when she took his hands to apologise after the "accidental" trip she caused. Jodie mocks him as an amateur and answers his question about her identity by saying Vermouth's catchphrase "A secret makes a woman woman". She takes his weapon just as Tomino notices in fear that the mechanism was accidentally triggered during the accident, and the bomb will explode in a few seconds.

As Sato and co are about to storm the bus, the doors open and all the passengers run away, and Conan tells Sato about the bomb. Sato and Chiba stop the cars near the tunnel and the others help the passengers to flee. Ayumi notices Haibara's absence and Conan runs back into the bus. Haibara wishes to die in the explosion to end all her troubles, whether it is involving more people in the Organisation or having to face the Organisation member who was in the bus, probably stalking her. She comments on her stupidity to think there was hope to be found when betraying the Organisation, and remembers her sister. Conan shoots in the back window with the robbers' gun and breaks it, jumping through it, holding Haibara just as the bus blows up.

Conan asks Takagi to take Haibara to the hospital as quick as possible with Agasa and the kids. Conan tells Haibara she must not flee her own destiny. As they leave, Jodie comes up to Conan calling him a James Bond for saving the girl this way. Conan replies he saw her locking the gun, therefore she is the 007. He then explains how he found out Tomino was the accomplice : the robbers constantly watched her through the rear-view mirror and she would make a chewing-gum bubble whenever someone was acting fishy, and then burst it, in order to have a reason to remove the sticking gum from her cheeks and pulling it in a certain direction and with a certain hand to indicate in which direction the robbers should have a look. The balloon he saw on th bus window reminded him of the chewing-gum. Conan says Tomino's watch indicated 1:00 which means it was either broken or used for another purpose. Conan reassures Jodie as for Yashima, who will be found and brought back to prison very soon by policemen.

As they head towards police's cars to go and make their depositions, Conan pretends not to be injured but Dr. Araide reveals his arm injury and orders him to be treated. Jodie looks at them, and behind, Akai looks at Jodie. Haibara tells the DB Conan put some of his own blood on her leg to pretend she was badly injured and needed urgent transportation to the hospital, for her to escape the Organisation member quickly. Haibara comments on the fact that now she and Kudo are square, after saving the life of each other.

Shuichi Akai speaks discreetly in a kind of walkie-talkie or recording machine, declaring the tail impossible for the moment due to an unexpected situation, and saying the investigation will resume tomorrow as the target didn't show up.

People

Man #1
	Hijacker

Man #2
	Hijacker

Kunio Yashima
	Leader of Robber Gang

Shuichi Akai
	Passenger

Yasuhiko Machida
	Passenger

Miharu Tomino
	Passenger

Dog Lovers Case

People

Teruya Kanou
	26 years old Son of Professor Agasa's friend

Arthur
	Kanou's pet dog Shiba Inu

Yoshio Tsunashima
	45 years old Dog lover

Doyle
	Victim (dognapped) Papillon

Aki Tosabayashi
	39 years old Dog lover

Shino Hasuki
	27 years old Dog lover

Christie
	Hasuki's pet dog Shetland Shepherd

K3 Murder Case

People

Ricardo Barreira
	36 years old Former pro boxer

Mike Norwood
	35 years old Major leaguer

Ray Curtis
	37 years old Pro soccer player

Ed McCay
	Victim (gunshot) 48 years old Journalist

Mai Kuraki
	Real-life pop singer

Miho Komatsu
	Real-life pop singer

Cover in other countries

China

Finland

France

Germany

Hong Kong

Indonesia

Italy

Korea

Malaysia (Chinese)

Malaysia (Malay)

Norway

Rep. of China (Taiwan)

Sweden

Thailand

United States

Vietnam

See also

• Manga
• Volume 21-30
• Detective Conan