The Client's Message

Chronology
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Episode 689 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
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:	22
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
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 Cop Masafumi Kimura as Takashi Sasamori Noriko Shitaya as Kaoru Sasamori Hiroshi Kawaguchi as Hikari Tsuge Yōko Soumi as Mariko Noguchi Satoko Kitō as Kazumi Ishikura
Music
Opening song:	TRY AGAIN
Closing song:	Hitomi no Melody

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 are 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 pushing Kaoru down the stairs which he saw him do it. The police already investigated and the misunderstandings were solved but it doesn't fool Takashi. Tsuge denies every word what Takashi said because he claims that he did not kill Kaoru. Back in the present, Kogoro is going to Tsuge's house because this morning, Tsuge contacted to Kogoro saying, "About that time's murderer, I'll tell you, so please come."

On the next stop, when Kogoro talks to the officer of what's happening, the officer said there was a landslide ahead. The right road is inaccessible. They were going to Tsuge's house so they can take the left road. Kogoro is not the only one who's invited but the three other people that made a commotion at the funeral are also coming. When Kogoro arrives at Tsuge's house, Takashi and Noguchi were there also. They brought umbrellas which they won't get wet in the rain. Noguchi enters the house to look for Tsuge. Ran notices Kazumi coming from her car without bringing an umbrella because she forgot to bring one so Ran helps her not to get wet more often by going under Ran's umbrella. While Conan is checking Kazumi's car, he heard a scream and when the group went inside the house, they found Tsuge dead with the head injury which made the 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

Kogoro checks his wrist and confirms that he's dead so he told 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 for not touching 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. Only on the tape there's no dust. That means there was something on it earlier. He also notices the screen and the art piece. The word that's labeled at the bottom of the art piece says, "Demurrer", so Conan thinks it meant "to object" or something.

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. An anagram is where you rearrange characters to make a different word. The cause of death was an occipital blow leading to intracranial injury. 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 told by the victim that he will tell who the culprit is from three months ago so they were all invited to Tsuge's house. Though, when they all arrived, Tsuge wasn't breathing anymore and the culprit had already left. According to the officer from the checkpoint, the atelier's path was not crossed by a single person, apparently. To begin with, excluding U-turns, only four cars drove up the slope. The four cars belonging to Kogoro, Takashi, Noguchi, and Kazumi. Meaning the culprit could be among them. For coming 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 house were her with Conan and Kogoro and the rest came afterwards. Takashi was leading, behind Takashi was Kazumi, and lastly Noguchi. They all went inside together and found the corpse. At the checkpoint, when Kogoro, Ran, and Conan were heading toward the atelier, what the officer said, "You guys, too?" meaning there was a person who was ahead of them who went to the atelier. About the type of car or driver, they could ask the officer about it. About that, he remembers they were four cars. As for what type of car or driver, he can't remember. 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 and that's Tsuge's car. Then Kogoro's group arrived, next is three cars and now it's four cars. However, according to the policeman, there was a car in front of Kogoro. That means the culprit's car arrived first and murdered Tsuge. For the time being, he left the atelier and hid elsewhere. Until everyone came, he waited, then appeared as if nothing had happened. The question is what's the motive and 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 and he says one day, he made a promise to his sister to have a meal. But the shoot got prolonged. Takashi was a bit late and when he went to the meeting place, he totally saw Kaoru got pushed down by the stairs and went to her.

Murder (Past)
	Location: Stone steps Victim: Kaoru Sasamori Age: 24 years old Cause of death: Fell from upstairs Suspects: Hikari Tsuge

He was certain that he saw Tsuge who was on top of the stone stairs. So he jumped to conclusions that Tsuge was the culprit. About the motives, Kazumi mentions that Kaoru told her about Takashi and Kaoru didn't get along because they were disputing over their parent's inheritance money so Kazumi suspects Takashi is the one who pushes Kaoru down the stairs. Another motive, Noguchi explains Tsuge had another woman other than Kaoru. Who that other person to have it investigated, she hired Kogoro. The other woman is none other than Kazumi Ishikura. Kazumi also didn't know to think that Tsuge would go out with Kaoru. It happens this: Kazumi received a message on her phone from Kaoru saying, "I was proposed to by Tsuge! What should I do?" So when Kazumi went to Tsuge, she made a big argument with him about breaking up with Kaoru because Kazumi is supposed to be Tsuge's lover. Takashi reveals this from her sister: Noguchi was trying to pay Kaoru to break up with Tsuge but she refuses the payment. Fed up seeing Tsuge not working, Noguchi began to look for a different client, a different artist, is what Takashi heard. If that happens, she'll have to pay a huge penalty.

Conan asks Takagi if he could take him to a spot where the car hides so they went to the woods by riding a car. As Conan gets out, he passed by the cabin and found 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 Kaoru's ex-lover Sculptor

Mariko Noguchi
	30 years old Tsuge's manager

Kazumi Ishikura
	25 years old Kaoru's friend Ballerina

Police Officer
	Tokyo MPD Police officer

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

When 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 a certain 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, when he quarreled with Takashi, he could've revealed it then. Probably, Tsuge, through his own methods, tried to prosecute the culprit. To do so, he needed three months. About the object of production, the object's title is "Demurrer" and it means "to object". When Takagi brought the light stand Conan (as Kogoro) requested, Conan orders Takagi to place it on top of the tape. The fact that Hikari Tsuge is an anagram from Ritsu Hikage. Hikari Tsuge and Ritsu Hikage, practically light and shadow. Therefore, to test the object's title: Demurrer, if you think of an anagram for it. One more, a different title reveals itself. "Demurrer" is "Murderer" meaning "killer", the shadow's title. Takagi has the light stand ready, so Conan (as Kogoro) told Ran to lower the screen that's above the door and turn off the lights. Now, Conan told Takagi to turn on the light with the light stand so when he turns it on, the shadow appears from the art piece object. Takagi slowly rotates the base of the object and finally, it's a shadow art. At first one doesn't know what the object it is, but when light is cast at a certain angle, it creates a shadow art of a ballerina. Tsuge, through his art, wanted to prosecute the culprit. The culprit who murdered Kaoru Sasamori and Hikari Tsuge is Kazumi Ishikura. With just a ballerina's shadow, the level of evidence is low. 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 to the area where it's pooled with blood, so you couldn't take that path. One would leave footprints then. So the culprit had to do what Conan did: The culprit had to crawl under the work table, get the light, and take it away. Takashi's and Noguchi's body type won't get them through the bottom. The one person who could get through is the ballerina, Kazumi Ishikura. One last thing, about her getting out of the car, she was soaking wet. According to Conan, the driver's seat was also soaking wet. In other words, Kazumi, before getting out of the car, were already soaked. Since during the downpour, she threw away the light stand. Kazumi confesses and reveals that she and Tsuge were planning to get married. At the very least, that's what she planned. That's why, when she heard he invited everyone, she thought she was going to announce it. Because of that, she accidentally came earlier than the appointed time. To a person like Kazumi, Tsuge showed his shadow art and said he will confess who the murderer is. While Tsuge was confronting Kazumi to turn herself in, she killed him. She didn't want to destroy the art object because she was happy. Even if it was meant to prosecute Kazumi. Tsuge, 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 and it showed a silhouette of Eri Kisaki.

Trivia

• The car is a 1998-99 Red Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V.
• The car is a 2002 Black 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	El missatge del client	The Client's Message
Italian	Il messaggio del cliente	The Client's Message

See also

• Season 22