Inspector Shiratori, Memories of the Cherry Blossom

Chronology
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Episode 568-569 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
Information
Title:	Inspector Shiratori, Memories of the Cherry Blossom
Japanese title:	白鳥警部、桜の思い出 (Shiratori-keibu, Sakura no Omoide)
Original airdate:	March 13, 2010 (Part 1) March 20, 2010 (Part 2)
Season:	19
Manga source:	Volume 66: Files 2-4 (687-689)
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ninzaburo Shiratori Wataru Takagi
Case solved by:	Ninzaburo Shiratori Conan Edogawa
Next Conan's Hint:	Hat (Part 1) Nail art (Part 2)
Staff
Director:	Koujin Ochi
Organizer:	Fumiharu Kamanaka
Storyboard:	Fumiharu Kamanaka
Episode director:	568 Minoru Tozawa 569 Fumiharu Kamanaka
Animation director:	568 Chiemi Hironaka 569 Nobuyuki Iwai, Tomomi Kamiya
Music
Opening song:	As the Dew
Closing song:	Hello Mr. my yesterday

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ninzaburo Shiratori Wataru Takagi Inspector Megure Sumiko Kobayashi Ai Haibara Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Miwako Sato Isokichi Kamoi (flashback)

Case

Situation

Part 1

At night, Sato congratulates Shiratori and Takagi on a case well-resolved (even when Shiratori gives the credit to Takagi's stubborness) and brings them hot drinks as thanks. Shiratori, however, has a memory of a little girl who looks a lot like a younger Sato offering him a paper cup with flowers made out of straws, and hesitates before taking his can. Then he refuses a dinner invitation since tomorrow is his day off and he intends to do other things; Sato and Takagi leave to a ramen restaurant, and Shiratori looks at them sadly.

At the theatres, the Detective Boys run into Shiratori, who is still depressed after it has sunk in that Sato's affection is definitely being directed at Takagi. Shiratori tells the kids that he hasn't fully given up and then tells them the actual reason behind his love for Sato: he believes that he's bound to her through destiny, because of an encounter he had with her in the past. He says that when he was a little boy, once he was in a bookstore and walked into Sato as a young girl, who stood up to two thieves by herself; Shiratori helped her stop the thieves and in return received from her a drink with a paper folded sakura ring around it, made of paper straws. Before leaving, she told him why she added the ring: because these paper sakura look like the symbol of the Tokyo Police Force, which she admires very much,. That meeting is what made him desire to become a policeman instead of a lawyer.

Ai listens to this story, and she question whether that girl was actually Sato since her words sound as something too "girlish" for a tomboy like her. Not to mention, even when Shiratori is sure that Sato is the girl from his past, in reality he didn't know her name; he's mostly going by the physical similarity and her starry-eyed admiration for the police.

Due to a mistake, Shiratori is stuck watching a movie with the children rather than the one he intended. He then runs into a young woman named Nami Kasakura, who accidentally spills his drink but quickly offers him one with paper folded sakuras, just like those from the girl from the past, which causes Shiratori to consider the possibility Kasakura was the girl instead of Sato. The kids also recognize her, since they returned her her wallet few before the start and promised to treat them to lunch as thanks. Shiratori and Kasakura seem to hit it off, and Ai and Conan wonder if this will go further.

The screening itself goes without hitch, save for an incident towards the end that scares even Ai. When it's all done Shiratori apologizes for having fallen asleep in the middle of the movie, but Kasakura doesn't mind and Ayumi says it's because of work. Upon hearing that he's a police man, Kasakura tells Shiratori she is being stalked and asks him to investigate. She adds that she asked her boyfriend Yoshirou Soumei to stay over at her place to help her... but when they go inside her apartment, they find Soumei dead.

Murder
	Location: Apartment Victim: Yoshiro Somei Cause of death: Blunt-force trauma Suspects: Nami Kasakura

Takagi and Megure arrive to help Shiratori with the investigation. It's established that Soumei was killed around 2 PM, during the movie that they all went to, and that his murderer probably took Soumei's spare key and locked the apartment to try fooling the police. Megure says that the killer was most likely Kasakura's stalker, who beat Soumei to death to get him out of the way, but then he turns and says that the other possibility is that Kasakura herself killed him. Shiratori mentions how she was sitting next to him, but Megure says that the apartment is less than five minutes away by car or taxi so it's not unplausible to have her as a suspect since she could've easily pretended to go to the restroom. Having dozed off at some point, Shiratori's testimony isn't foolproof.

Takagi says he checked on Soumei's cellphone, and it has a call from around the time of his death. Kasakura admits that she got a call from him, but she cut it off since she still was in the theater. Shiratori can't confirm it, but Ayumi does since she saw something lit up and it could have been Kasakura's phone. Genta and Mitsuhiko also mention seeing Kasakura's hat-covered head, but Ai wonders if this is an all-too good alibi for her. The talk is somewhat derailed by Genta and Mitsuhiko talking about "something scary"; Kasakura mentions a specific scene of the Gamera movie - but Ai says what happened after that was the really scary deal, and Kasakura talks about it too. Her reply puzzles Conan, however.

Shiratori checks on his notepad to check on the time and the movie's length, and a small paper sakura falls off. Conan sees it but Shiratori picks it up and keeps it, then asks Takagi to go to the theater to check on other details. Once Takagi is gone, Shiratori and Megure ask Kasakura if they can check on her place, to see if the stalker left any clues or cameras around; Conan does his own search, until Megure tells him to wait in the corner. As Shiratori takes a look in a cupboard, his eyes go wide at something, but he denies finding anything when asked...

In the meantime, Ayumi is on her own doing something. Genta and Mitsuhiko ask her what's going on and she shows them she's been using the paper straw wrappers... to make sakura flowers, which are just like those the "girl of destiny" and Kasakura made. In the meantime, Conan tells Ai that Kasakura said she was a big fan of movies with special effects, but has no memorabilia related to such stuff; they also discuss how, for a super popular movie showing, the seats around Kasakura and Shiratori were empty. Conan is also bothered by how easily the group became Kasakura's witnesses... and concludes that Shiratori has his own thoughts about the case.

Part 2

Megure and Shiratori can't find any actual signs of a stalker in Kasakura's apartment. Takagi cannot find evidence in the theater either, since it's extremely crowded and those who work there can't recall who left the place in the middle of the movie. Shiratori asks Takagi to check on the trash cans that are about to be replaced and look for a specific piece of evidence that should have fingerprints and certain contents on them. Then he stops and seems to not be feeling well, but recovers and finishes the call; after that, he walks to the kitchen to wash his hands, still looking very dejected.

Ai and Conan follow Shiratori, asking him why did he leave out some details that could've been vital evidence. He hesitates heavily, but with some more prodding from Conan he recovers his spirits and calls Takagi again. Conan and Ai then look at the cupboards and see exactly what made Shiratori so pale in the face.

People

Nami Kasakura
	27 years old

Yoshiro Somei
	Victim (bludgeoned) 30 years old Kasakura's boyfriend

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Megure runs a brief resume of the evidence they have gathered, pointing out at a stalker coming in and killing Soumei out of jealousy over Kasakura. Megure says the kids shouldn't stay around and, since Agasa and Kogoro aren't around, he's called their teacher over to send them home soon. Shiratori is still a little pale, the memories of the "girl of destiny" still fresh, but Conan reminds him of what he must do.

Kasakura asks for some time on her own before officially giving her declaration, but Shiratori says she should come immediately. He adds that Nami Kasakura is the culprit, and is so serious about it that Genta, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi and Megure are shocked. When Megure and then the kids say that they all saw Kasakura in the movie theater at the time of Soumei's death, Ai and Conan counter that what they really saw was Kasakura's tuque, aka her white handmade cap.

Shiratori says that Kasakura took advantage of him falling asleep and placed her tuque on him, to create her alibi by having him "impersonate" her and be seen by the kids sitting right behind him. She completed the "illusion" it by putting her open cellphone on the empty paper cup, and later using the already dead Soumei's cellphone to call and create the illusion that Soumei was calling her, which would be easy due to the dark environment of the theater and how the two adjacent seats, purchased online by Kasakura, were empty, so no one would see her "trick" up close.

Since the Detective Boys were the ones seating behind the "vital seats" and Kasakura knew it after checking it online, she went out of the way to be noticed by them: she deliberately left her wallet there, promised to treat them to lunch as "thanks" later, and planned to have them find the dead Soumei with her to use them as witnesses, adding Shiratori to the plan after Ayumi innocently told her that he was a policeman. Shiratori also says that him falling asleep was no coincidence: Kasakura deliberately bumped into him to make him drop his drink, got him a new one that she had slipped sleeping pills in, and then used him as her 'double' when the effect kicked in and he dozed off.

Kasakura tries to deflect the info off her by saying she had invited others to come with her, but they didn't come for one or another reason. When she mentions how Shiratori's drink was marked, he pulls out the tiny paper flower, which he had pulled out of the one in his real drink as a memento. Right then Takagi arrives at the department carrying a trash bag, and shows them the drink he purchased; they compare the lengths of an untouched straw wrapper and a sakura-shaped one, and determine that Kasakura also switched Shiratori cup while he was asleep to hide how there were sleeping pills in the one she gave him, and that she had several paper folded sakuras already in her cupboard, all wrapped around her tea cups and ready for use. (That's what Shiratori found in his search, and later Ai and Conan saw as well.)

When Kasakura dares Shiratori to get the supposed taxi driver that took her to her apartment so she could kill Soumei during the movie, Conan steps in and says that she didn't mention how there was an earthquake in the middle of the screening, which scared even someone mostly fear-proof as Ai, and which she wouldn't notice if she was in a vehicle. The kids add that Kasakura didn't know about one of the most famous moments of the movie either, one that preceded the earthquake itself, proving that she had gone out at some point.

Kasakura confronts Shiratori on how he's attacking her when few minutes ago he was trying to help her. Shiratori explains that at some point he touched the back of his head and found a white string on his hair from the tuque hat, meaning some strands of it should also be found on Kasakura's tuque, definitely proving that she's the killer...

Kasakura removes her tuque hat, then throws it on Takagi's face before she angrily confesses to the murder. She reveals that she and Soumei had been going out for seven years, but that he been soaking up her money ever since. The breaking point was how she gave him her mother's valious ring for safekeeping but he pawned it instead, and when she tried to get it back she found out he had taken it and given it to another woman as an engagement ring. Megure says Kasakura could have easily gotten Soumei tried and jailed for either fraud or theft, but she replies that she wanted to kill him instead of ust getting him arrested for making her waste seven years of her life and her youth, and finishes by saying she had always hated and distrusted the police so she felt she had to do it herself.

Shiratori is genuinely saddened that the "girl of destiny" has become a criminal. He tells Kasakura how she wasn't like that in the past as Takagi takes her away, and she bitterly tells him that not only she can't remember ever meeting him, but that women's hearts change like the weather and believing they never do is just an effect of male ego, so with the right push women can go from angels to demons.

To try cheering Shiratori up, Ayumi offers him the paper folded sakuras that she had made earlier - and repeats the same things about the police that the girl in Shiratori's past said. A shocked Shiratori anxiously asks her where did she learn that and Ayumi explains she learned that from her teacher Sumiko Kobayashi, causing him to wonder if Kobayashi could have been the girl from his past. Then Kobayashi herself arrives to the scene, having been told by Megure that the children were there and needed a lift home, and Shiratori is starstruck when he sees her and realises that she is the girl.

When Kobayashi is about to take the Detective Boy home by taxi, Shiratori gallantly takes her hand and offers to do so instead in his car. Haibara tells to Conan that this is a "surprise happy ending", while Conan realises that the Sakura trees around them are now in bloom.

Trivia

• Episode 569 of this case used the song "PRAY" by B'z as the alternate ending for Hello Mr. my yesterday.

Manga to anime changes

• In the anime, instead of throwing her hat at Takagi's face, Kasakura takes it off calmly and tells him to take it. Then, she tosses it at him and admits that she's the killer.
• Additionally, after Shiratori offers to take Kobayashi and the children back home, there's a short anime scene where she apologizes to him for letting the Detective Boys causing trouble and making him drive them back; Shiratori says it not a problem and adds it's just a simple task.

See also

• Season 19