Volume 31

Kikuyo Kasama
	29 years old; Muneyuki's assistant;

Muneyuki Mino
	62 years old; Potter;

	Volume 31
	Information
Release date:	March 17, 2001
Chapters:
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-126161-2
Publisher:	Shogakukan
English release date:	September 15, 2009
English ISBN:	ISBN 1-4215-2199-7
English Publisher:	Viz Media
	Featured Detective & Keyhole
; Toyama no Kin-san	; Ginshiro Toyama
	Aoyama's death & Conan side images

Chronology
‹ Volume 30	List of Chapters • List of Cases	Volume 32 ›

Volume 31 was released on March 17, 2001 in Japan.

Cast

Characters

Gadgets

Voice-Changing Bowtie

Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Pottery Class Case

Anime Episode 228-229: The Murderous Pottery Class

File 307 - The Hidden Word

The police are about to arrest Kikuyo, as they’ve found out she had bought a very expensive flat recently and may have killed her fiancé and future husband Motoo to get the latter’s life insurance premium. Before finding Motoo’s corpse with the others, she had previousky hidden it in the closet and pretended to go and fetch the first-aid kit to make people believe she couldn’t kill and hide Motoo in less than a minute. Mino confirms he saw Kikuyo trying to strangle Motoo, even though she claims it was a joke. Conan tranquilises Sonoko and discloses the truth : the only person who could have murdered Motoo was the one who last saw him and told Kikuyo to go and wait for him in the workshop, as it seems Motoo was pulling up his sleeves and preparing to go and help for ceramics as he was murdered.

Show spoilers »

The culprit is therefore Muneyuki Mino. His alibi with the piece of apron cloth, allegedly being Motoo’s, and not being visible when he, Ran and Kikuyo went into the room is unvalid as it is a very cunning trick : he had cut a piece of apron and taped it inside the closet, on the right door, and then carefully closed the door back. Therefore, when someone whould open the door and close it back, the piece of cloth would come out from under the door. Mino broke a loud ceramic on purpose to attract the others’ attention and have them witness that the apron cloth was absent. Then he deliberately cut his finger to send Kikuyo to the closet and have her unknowingly do his trick, in order to have her accused when everyone would notice the cloth afterwards when finding Motoo’s corpse, to have them believe she was the killer. As Kikuyo was in a hurry to treat Mino’s injury, she cant’ be the killer as she didn’t notice it neither do it.

As for the body falling trick, Mino had tied it to a kind of string ; he then put the body in a diagonal forward-heading position, and hid it behind the aprons of the closet ; he then ran the « string » behind the horizontal crossbar for hangers, along the partition, up to the left door, into which crack he wedged the string, doing a knot at its end, and then closing both doors. Then, if someone opens the right door only, as Kikuyo did, nothing happens, and the body is hidden anyway, but if both or only the left door is opened, the string is released, and the body falls from the closet on the floor. The « string » used is actually Motoo’s tie, wrapped around his neck like a rope, and whose lower part was wedged in the door, the knot being the tie’s pin, explaining why the pin was much lower on the tie than it should be, and why the body pressure and the wedging had created a big gap between the pin and its frame. And not to see the tie poking out of the closet, you just needed to fold it back inside the crack a little.

When he opened the closet, Mino actually just cracked open both doors, first to have Motto’s body fall on the floor without suspicion (his tie would just be thought to be the weapon of the crime or his own tie, not anyhting else), then to avoid opening wide the right door, which would have revealed the cloth trick. When Motto’s body fell, Mino immediately rushed on his left side, which is just in front of the right door, to pretend helping him but actually used his body as a screen to prevent anyone from seeing him opening wide the right door, and retrieving the piece of cloth with the tape. Mino probably hid it into the bathroom afterwards while the police was investigating the corpse. Conan saw him taking scissors in the storeroom, probably to cut the cloth into pieces and then flush it into the toilet.

As Mino says this is not evidence, given anyone just could have done exactly the same thing, and since he often uses tape or aprons as a laborer, Sonoko says there is a piece of evidence only a ceramicist could have left, on Motoo’s tie : nail traces with clay on it, along with Mino’s DNA probably. As a ceramicist, he can’t fully remove clay from under his nails, and when he pulled the tie out to wedge it in the door’s crack, he left those traces. He didn’t use gloves as it would have been difficult to pull out the tie, and even with his bare hands he needed to be very careful not to leave the slightest fingerprint on the pin, completely forgetting the clay under his nails. Mino could have used a string or a rope instead of a tie, besides.

Though, the ceramicist wanted neither one nor the other : the tie was a love-labored Christmas present from his daughter to Motoo, and there’s no way using gloves that are normally used for « dirty » items. Moreover, the tie is a perfect rememberance of what Motoo has done to his daughter. Mino pretended this was a present from Kikuyo to Motoo by leaving a card inside. Mino wanted to have her accused of the murder as he also holds her responsible for her daughter’s death. Mino’s daughter had actually committed suicide by throwing herself under the wheels of a truck two years ago. Mino thought this was an accident at first, but had doubts then when finding out his daughter had discarded the present box with the tie still inside in her bedroom’s bin, implying she had killed herself due to her complicated love affairs with Motoo. Mino thought Motto should have the tie all the same and rushed to the airport, as Motoo was about to leave due to a job transfer, and once there he saw him in high spirits, enjoying a close and happy relationship with Kikuyo, not mourning at all, which means Mino’s daughter had found out she was being cheated on by her fiancé. Mino knew this was a present for Motoo as he had been shopping with his daughter who confessed to him that she wanted to offer her fiancé a tie whose beige color would bring out the clay – and so her ceramicist dad.

Makoto believed Sonoko’s cup was a flower pot, while Ran actually didn’t send hers to Shinichi, as she thought it spoiled. Conan finds the cup is being used by Ran instead as a pen box where « Eggheaded but boneheaded after all » is written on it, but « I’m waiting for you <3 » is written under it, reminding Conan of his promise to come back after Ran waits for him (Vol. 26), which makes him feel over the moon.

People

Motoo Mino
	Victim (strangled) 31 years old Office worker Married into Muneyuki's family

Ms.Mino
	Deceased (Traffic Accident) Mineyuki's daughter Former wife of Motoo

Fake Kogoro Mouri Case

Anime Episode 243-244: Kogoro Mouri's Imposter

File 308 - An Impostor Appears

An imposter impersonates Kogoro Mouri at a hotel where he is invited to investigate a case where a man is said to have committed suicide 4-5 years ago. Kogoro decides to play along and not reveal his identity. Later that night, the impostor is found hanged in his room.

File 309 - Truth of the Impostor

Conan reveals that it is a murder and that it relates to the incident 5 years ago.

File 310 - The Time of Lies

Look at the Spoiler, who is the culprit?

Show spoilers »

People

Yoshiro Onda
	58 years old Owner of Aoiya

Tatsuo Mori
	Victim (hanged) Kogoro Mouri's imposter

Masao Jinbo
	40 years old Aoiya staff

Eiji Urakawa
	37 years old Aoiya staff

Netted Man Murder Case

Anime Episode 246-247: The Mystery in the Net

File 311 - Warm Ocean

Professor Agasa takes the Detective Boys and Conan to the beach during school break, and Conan wishes he were in his true self in order to fully enjoy the beach and sun just like the other teenagers. Though, he seems to enjoy checking out female swimmers. Genta does the same, and Conan comments on the fact he particularly enjoys the girl behind them's swimsuit, and Ai thinks he's making a transposition and imagining Ran everywhere. Actually, the girl in question happens to be Ran, who had come with Sonoko at that same beach to enjoy free time. Ran says it's fine they all have fun together and Ai stares at her, wondering. They start to play ball together and suddenly Ran and Conan leave towards the beach as Ai is not feeling well, and was lied on a lounger, with fresh wet towels on her. Conan says to Agasa Ai got severe sunstroke due to sitting motionless in full sunlight at the water's edge while watching them. Ran rushes to them with a bucket of ice and water she had went and fetched at the beach's restaurant to help Ai feel fresher, and she is delighted to hear she is getting better. She tells Ai to tell her next time, whenever she doesn't feel well. Ran then leaves the three while Conan and Agasa comment to each other how caring and protective she is.

Ai says she stood in direct sunlight watching them, instead of resting under the parasol, because she got nervous and wanted to flee the ocean, and more especially dolphins, the princes of the sea, to whom not even dark and cruel sharks would be able to do the slightest harm. As Conan doesn't understand a single thing and replies dolphins can't really do anything in front of sharks, a lifeguard all of sudden loudly scolds the Detective Boys for getting into a small boat, since they might hurt people, and it's forbidden moreover. Another lifeguard comes along and tells them to excuse him as he was dumped by his girlfriend not long ago. On the beach, a fisherman called Aramaki says ironically that these lifeguards were former fishermen who are so bad at it that they now end up picking garbage up on the sand. Both lifeguards get angry at him and remind him of their meeting tonight at the hotel's Chinese restaurant at 8 PM.

At night, Ran, Sonoko and the others eat dinner together at that restaurant, and Ran asks why Ai isn't here with them. Sonoko tells her friend she developed a kind of maternal instinct for the kid, and Ran answers that Ai is somehow very shy and secretive, and she'd love to make more deeper acquaintance with her. She sometimes believe Ai hates her as she always avoids looking at her whenever she meets her. Though, Ayumi says it's impossible as Ai always tells Conan that "with such a 34C, she must never get bored", to which Ran answers by scolding Conan for discussing such things, as Ai and him are just kids. Ayumi adds that Ai said Sonoko was a rather "easy lay". Suddenly, the lifeguard who had told off the kids, Shimojo, turns up and asks Sonoko what time it is. He sighs in boredom and annoyance afterwards, knowing he arrived at least 45 minutes too early, since his watch was broken. Shimojo says he doesn't want to argue with Aramaki, rather wants to settle things with him as far as respect of nature is concerned.

He then goes on explaining Aramaki is a crooked fisherman who constantly overfishes and scrapes the ocean floor with his nets with absolutely no concern for fishing limits and leaving some time to fish to breed anew. Yoshizawa, his friend, turns up and adds it's impossible to sue Aramaki as that portion of sea was declared decriminalised and thus Aramaki is completely within his rights, though immoral. Yoshizawa arrived just in time, but their other friend Nobutsugu is late, since he had been visiting his father's grave. Shimojo explains that today it will have been eight years that their three fathers, who went fishing together in the dead of a rather stormy night, died at sea. Sonoko wants to know more about it and has a few glasses with the lifeguards, till drunkenness.

Then comes Nobutsugu Nezu, who believes their fathers died due to Aramaki's "pirate ship" having had theirs sink into the ocean. None seems to believe that story, and Nezu, in anger, calls Aramaki and someone picks up at last, but nothing but the sound of waves can be heard. The lifeguards believe Aramaki went fishing before the appointment, and as the tide is high, they decide to wait and sleep it off before going to his house to meet him. Meanwhile, the corpse of Aramaki is found on a desert beach, pushed back by the waves, and trussed up inside a net.

File 312 - Caught in a Net...

The lifeguards start looking for Aramaki and find him dead drowned on the shore. Inspector Yokomizo turns up with police, and starts investigating, constantly cut off by Conan, the DBs or Sonoko. Conan remarks it's weird Aramaki's body is covered in bruises, scars, and his clothes are completely damaged, while he is supposed to have died by drowning. Yokomizo checks Aramaki's phone and indeed notices the three suspects phoned Aramaki in the same exact order and at the same exact time as they said they had, and Ran and Sonoko confirm their presence to the restaurant, then they can't be the murderers, even though they resented Aramaki a lot. Conan doesn't get it why the phone was picked up only when Nezu called. They suddenly all spot the small boat in the distance and Yokomizo sends agents to recover it, while Nezu gets infuriated and scared at the scene, reminding him of how their fathers were similarly found on the shore dead drowned, especially his' who was found with a deep injury in the stomach.

Yokomizo confesses he can't swim and the DBs wonder how a policeman got to be selected to be an inspector if he can't even swim. In the boat, they find an empty bottle of sake, a sandal, and a button, along with seawater. The sandal and button are the victim's. Yokomizo believes Aramaki was inebriated by sake and then drowned by being tied and pushed into the sea. Yet Conan says it's strange then all this evidence wasn't discarded into the ocean right after, as the boat would certainly be found afterwards. Shimojo asks Yokomizo to tell them quickly about the time of the death, in order to be in the know and let them go home. Ayumi rushes to the sea to pick up a can who had been thrown away in the water, but the can is pushed back by the waves and starts rolling, and Ayumi slides over the watery sand. Mitsuhiko fears she has cut herself with tiny bits of shell, which is actually not the case hopefully.

Conan asks the forensics to show him Aramaki's phone, completely scarred as well. Sonoko hints at the fact Aramaki might have been ensnared by a trick of the murderer that would prevent him from escaping when submerged by water. Suddenly, Conan figures out the truth. Meanwhile, Ai is waiting for everyone in the hotel room, eating crisps and watching TV, and complaining about their dawdling so much.

File 313 - A Courageous Decision

The three suspects lose patience as Yokomizo still doesn't get the exact time of the death from the forensics. Nezu says none of them could murder Aramaki since someone had to be there to pick up the phone, whereas they were all at the restaurant at that moment. Conan says he will use Agasa's voice to solve the case, instead of anesthetising Sonoko just like usual. However, he realises he left his voice-changing bowtie in their hotel room ; but Ai comes along and gives him the precious item, since she felt such a thing had happened and accounted for their being late. The DBs turn up as well with what Conan had asked them to fetch : a big basin and a bucket, a dried starfish and a big shell.

Show spoilers »

Agasa starts the deduction show by saying it was perfectly possible for one of the suspects to have the phone pick up a call automatically from far : given Aramaki's corpse was trussed up into a net, he was just being tossed around by waves, spinning round and round, which explains why his body and clothes were in such bad state, and why his phone was as well ; the spinning body probably came in contact with some sharp-edged shells or stones, added to sand, that severly scarred and bruised Aramaki. It was a mere matter of chance that the phone did pick up and hang up when Nezu called it, due to probably banging into a stone or so. That means anyone, even far away from the shore, could be the murderer.

Suddenly, Yokomizo gets the phone call from forensics and reveal that all three are now to be counted among the most serious suspects, since the time of the death completely nullifies their alibis. Shimojo says it's impossible to kill Aramaki without being on the beach, but Agasa replies the culprit used a special trick to drown Aramaki without him being able to move and without the murderer having to be there. Agasa asks the DBs to fill the basin with sand, just like the beach is, to dig a big hole and place the starfish in it, that will stand for Aramaki's unconscious body, and then to place a big shell over it, just like something very big and heavy was placed over Aramaki's body to prevent him from moving an inch. And that thing must be bowl-shaped, just like the shell, so as to move away very easily when the tide would be high. Agasa accordingly pours the water from the bucket on the sand into the basin, enabling the shell to move away, and then progresisvely the starfish would move away as well. Yokomizo realises the small boat was that thing placed over Aramaki's body, which had been half-buried in the sand, Aramaki being dead drunk and trussed up into the net, in order to stop him from moving and drown him when the tide would rise. Then the boat would naturally drift away with the water, just like the corpse would later on. None would guess, especially in the dark and the dead of night, that a mere small boat on a beach was hiding a body.

The person who schemed all this had come way beforehand at the restaurant to be assured that Aramaki would die with the tide while he was away, with witnesses around : Noboru Shimojo. Shimojo had put a sandal, shirt button, and sake bottle in the boat in order to make the police believe Aramaki had been tied up in the boat and pushed into the sea afterwards, since the police would certainly retrieve the boat. He had besides added some sea water inside the boat to make it heavier, ensuring Aramaki would be completely stuck under it. Shimojo is the culprit since he said to Yokomizo his call was just after Yoshizawa's on Aramaki's phone : how can he know that since Yoshizawa arrived right after him at the restaurant and told him he had called the victim earlier, unless Shimojo was here with Aramaki when Yoshizawa called him. Agasa says he has no evidence of Shimojo being the criminal though, and he tries to lure him into revealing he knows the time of the death : Agasa pretends not to be sure of when Shimojo was at the restaurant with him, the latter yelling at him, saying he was really there with him, around 8 PM when Aramaki died. How can Shimojo know the time, since Yokomizo reveals the time of the death was calculated by the forensics to be between 6 PM and 9:30 PM only. Agasa says the forensics can't know the exact time of the death, precisely because Aramaki's death conditions, especially the waves tossing him around, made it impossible for them to check the skin color, body rigidity and temperature. Indeed, it's easier to do it for a motionless corpse rather than for a moving one, since the waves' power would reactivate blood and temperature inside Aramaki's body, even though dead, in some limbs and parts, utterly distorting reality.

Shimojo therefore confesses to having killed the one who was responsible for his and his friends' fathers' death. Aramaki had went fishing at sea despite a treacherous storm, and once he got in danger there, he sent a SOS message and Shimojo's, Yoshizawa's and Nezu's fathers went to resuce him. But suddenly a huge wave caught Aramaki's ship which was violently slung against the fathers' ship, causing them to fall into the sea. Aramaki then left them adrift without resucing them. Shimojo had asked the fisherman who was working with Aramaki about the truth, and he told him that story, before vanishing into thin air afterwards, murdered by Aramaki, who dared to reveal it to Shimojo. The latter says he was brave enough to kill Aramaki, to which Ran answers that bravery has to do with someone daring to fight for a rightful cause, for justice, and it's certainly not a way to excuse a crime. Hearing that, Shimojo stands speechless and seems to understand Ran's words afterwards. Ran tells Sonoko she thought Shinichi would have said something like that too.

Ai was moved by Ran's words too, and she understands what courage is, and how important it is. She then comes up to Ran, introducing herself, asking her to become friends.

People

Noboru Shimojo
	34 years old Fisherman

Yuta Yoshizawa
	34 years old Fisherman

Giichi Aramaki
	Victim (drowned) 51 years old Fisherman

Nobutsugu Nezu
	35 years old Fisherman

Naniwa Swordsman Case

Anime Episode 263: The Osaka Double Mystery - The Naniwa Swordsman and Toyotomi's Castle

Characters introduced

Soshi Okita
	Kyoto Senshin High representative

File 314 - The Naniwa Swordsman

Conan, Ran and Kogoro are coming at last to Heiji's place in Osaka to enjoy time and dinners together, and also to meet Heiji's parents. Meanwhile, Heiji hopes to win a kendo competition, a sport in which he excels, and especially to defeat famous Soshi Okita from Kyoto Senshin High School, who injured his neck with a special blow last year. He says he wants to win the tournament notably to declare his love to Kazuha, as an anwser to the "love injury" Kazuha made to him (Vol. 28). Some time after, Heiji overhears a violent argument between a drunk kendoka named Tarumi and his team from the University of Shinnai, who calls him a loser as he always do everything to throw a wrench in their gears. As Hakamada, the team captain, harshly looks down on Tarumi, the latter says he has nothing to lose (he was fired from his job) and will soon "let the cat out of the bag", adding he will kill Hakamada some day.

Afterwards, the team worries about Tarumi's absence and they start looking for him in the whole Naniwa sports hall, only to find him dead in a warehouse, covered in blood, probably stabbed with a sabre. They go and get the police, ambulance and also their team captain to come to the warehouse. Hakamada arrives first with the rest of the team, along with Heiji who had eavesdropped their conversation, only to note there's absolutely no corpse, no blood and no sabre in the warehouse. Some sports hall employees come along and tell the group a mysterious man has just called them, asking them to tell the Shinnai team to go to the swimming pool's changing rooms to find Tarumi there. They indeed find the corpse of their mate there, drenched under a hot shower, near the sabre.

As the police arrive, Heiji wonders how the corpse came to be transported from the warehouse to the changing room without people's notice. He starts calling "Kudo" to get some help to solve the murder, but eventually hangs up when he hears Kazuha say Kudo will solve the matter in a flash, which makes Heiji angry and wanting to solve it by himself, before Shinichi/Conan's arrival in Osaka.

File 315 - The Invisible Swordsman

Heiji decides to investigate the case, and accordingly his kendo team must try and win the tournament without their champion, which will be quite hard. Heiji tells Otaki Tarumi’s mates could be suspected, since a demonstration sabre was stolen today, and the murderer seemed to know very well how to use a sabre, and where all the rooms and storage rooms of the sports hall are, not mentioning the previous argument. Though, Heiji can’t find any evidence, neither how the corpse was transported to the changing room. Hakamada says someone stole his kendo plate, which is not so important in the end, because the tournament is over for them. Kazuha end Heiji’s team feel tense as they watch Okita knocking down and taking out their kendokas one after the other during the matches. Therefore, Kazuha starts running and searching for Heiji everywhere in the hall.

Heiji has Doguchi, one from the Shinnai team, own up to the fact that Haori, their manager, and also Tarumi’s ex-girlfriend, who started dating Hakamada, eventually left them after the « affair ». Heiji can’t get more information as he is distracted by two kendokas talking about Okita’s moves, and Doguchi escapes his grip. Heiji asks the kendokas if they saw any suspicious person during the murder, and they reply they indeed saw a tall kendoka in full wear carrying another one's wear in a kendo bag. Heiji understands that only Hakamada could do it, as he is strong enough to carry a corpse in a bag, and he could have hid behind the storage room's pommel horse after his murder, waiting for his mates to leave. However, Heiji immediately rules out this possibility, given Hakamada couldn't be sure if one of his mates would remain in the room waiting for the police to come, or not. Hakamada comes up to Heiji and threatens him saying things will go worse for him if he keeps harassing his childhood friend Doguchi, who doesn't stand the sight of blood and wouldn't harm a fly.

As Conan, Ran and Kogoro are about to turn up momentarily, Heiji realises some mannequins could have been used, and he rushes to the storage room, opens the pommel horse, and finds out the truth.