The Scar that Evokes the Past

Chronology
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Episode 532-535 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
Information
Title:	532: The Scar of First Love 533: The Scar that Evokes the Past 534: The New Scar and the Whistling Man 535: An Old Scar and the Detective's Spirit
Japanese title:	532: 初恋の傷跡 (Hatsukoi no Kizuato) 533: 過去を呼ぶ傷跡 (Kako o Yobu Kizuato) 534: 新たな傷跡と口笛の男 (Arata na Kizuato to Kuchibue no Otoko) 535: 古き傷跡と刑事の魂 (Furuki Kizuato to Keiji no Tamashii)
Original airdate:	May 2, 2009 (The Scar of First Love) May 9, 2009 (The Scar that Evokes the Past) May 16, 2009 (The New Scar and the Whistling Man) May 23, 2009 (An Old Scar and the Detective's Spirit)
Broadcast rating:	5,90% 6,50% 8,70% 7,20%
Season:	18
Manga source:	Volume 64: Files 4-10 (667-673)
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Kiyonaga Matsumoto Ai Haibara Detective Boys Wataru Takagi Miwako Sato Inspector Megure Detective Chiba Ninzaburo Shiratori Jinpei Matsuda Masayoshi Sato
Cases solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan) Conan Edogawa
Next Conan's Hint:	Nickname (The Scar of First Love) Sushi (The Scar that Evokes the Past) The letter Z (The New Scar and the Whistling Man) Mouse (An Old Scar and the Detective's Spirit)
Staff
Director:	Koujin Ochi
Organizer:	532: Seiki Taichuu 533: Seiki Taichuu 534: Takaomi Kanezaki 535: Takaomi Kanezaki
Storyboard:	532: Seiki Taichuu 533: Seiki Taichuu 534: Takaomi Kanezaki 535: Takaomi Kanezaki
Episode director:	532: Masahisa Koyata 533: Kouichirou Kuroda 534: Fumiharu Kamanaka 535: Minoru Tozawa
Animation director:	532: Masakazu Yamazaki 532: Aki Kumata 533: Michitaka Yamamoto 533: Masashi Hasegawa 534: Nobuyuki Iwai 535: Rei Masunaga
Music
Opening song:	Everlasting Luv
Closing song:	Doing all right

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Kiyonaga Matsumoto Ai Haibara Ayumi Yoshida Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Genta Kojima Wataru Takagi Miwako Sato Inspector Megure 100px Detective Chiba Ninzaburo Shiratori Jinpei Matsuda (background) Masayoshi Sato (background) 100px Officer Takigawa

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Case

The Scar of First Love

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Kogoro Mouri Ran Mouri Kiyonaga Matsumoto Inspector Megure Wataru Takagi 100px Detective Chiba

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Situation

A blind rich woman named Kurumi Shodo asks Kogoro to help her find a boy who saved her life in the past, and whom she plans to reward very nicely in thanks. Her only clue is that the boy should have a large scar across either his torso or his chest, which he got while saving her life. She has been able to narrow it down to two people, Ryuichi Kusumoto and Sogo Banba, after giving a public interview about it, and they are both staying at her house: Kogoro must now identify which of the two is the boy, and which one is a swindler. Conan meanwhile notices the police are stalking the woman's house. He confronts them and finds Matsumoto, Megure, Takagi and others, who tell Conan that a serial killer from a past case may be there, as the killer also has a scar on his upper body.

Shodo arranges for Kusumoto and Banba to have a hot bath in her house's luxurious bath space, and asks Kogoro to join them so he can see their scars up close. Kogoro notices that the butler of the house, Taisuke Houya, also happens to have a scar across his torso, so he also could potentially fit in.

After speaking to Shodo and finding about other characteristics of the boy, Conan realizes who it is. During the midnight snack, made mostly of fresh sushi, Conan uses Kogoro to solve the case.

People

Kurumi Shodo
	39 years old Head of the Shodo family

Taisuke Hoya
	40 years old Butler

Ryuhei Kusumoto
	42 years old

Sogo Banba
	41 years old

Maid
	One of the two maids working for Kurumi

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Conan finds out that both the people who claimed to be the boy from her past were lying. He says that their scars are too long. Kurumi Shodo said that the scar stretched across the boy's body, however, when a boy grows, the scar does not grow as well, it would stay the same size. A scar that was huge on the boy would seem small on a man. Kusumoto and Banba's scars are huge, so they couldn't fit into such a desciption.

Conan realizes and declares that Shodo's butler, Taisuke Hoya, is the boy from her past and that Kurumi most likely already knew for a while now and is using the public attention to try and get him to confess knowing he would never tell her otherwise because of his selflessness. He not only mentions this, but also adds that that the boy's nickname was revealed to be "gari" because he liked to eat Gari, the pickled ginger served with sushi to cleans the palate. As proof, he points out that Hoya is the only one who ate the sushi pieces that contained gari.

Hoya admits that he was the boy, and says he cannot openly reveal it because the accident where he got scarred is also the one where Shodou got the injuries that ultimately rendered her blind. Conan explains Shodo's reasons and how she always knew he was the one she cared for; then he urges Hoya to go speak to her privately, which he does.

Later, Kiyonaga Matsumoto barges in and accuses Ryuhei Kusumoto of being the serial killer from a past case. Kusumoto reveals that he was studying abroads when the murders took place, but he also adds that he "copied" the scar from a strange man that he met a few years ago, whom they realize is the actual serial killer.

---

The Scar and the Whistling Man

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ai Haibara Genta Kojima Ayumi Yoshida Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Wataru Takagi Inspector Megure Kiyonaga Matsumoto Miwako Sato Ninzaburo Shiratori 100px Detective Chiba Jinpei Matsuda Masayoshi Sato

Situation

The next day, a TV show features the case with this serial killer, which is three days away of being definitely closed. A popular criminal psychologist named Douji Hiramune is one of the guests and he arrogantly challenges the serial killer to reveal himself, even daring him to come kill him if he wishes so. Hiramune happens to live in the same apartment complex as Ayumi, where the Detective Boys are staying over since she's home alone. Haibara and Ai go for food and drinks, and when they return she reveals to Conan that she saw a mysterious man whistling Let It Be which is the serial killer's trademark.

Conan immediately contacts Takagi, Chiba and Sato and tells them that the killer is around. He then tells the others to stay put and runs out of the Yoshida apartment, finds Hiramune's flat and sees the door is open. He steps in and finds Hiramune murdered, with the letter "Z" slashed into his back and his throat slashed... exactly like all but one of the serial killer's victims, who died either 20 (three of them) or 15 (the last one) years ago.

(The victim who wasn't stabbed, Matsumoto's best friend/Megure's mentor Morimura, was ran over by the killer's car during the first days of the murder investigation, bleeding to death in Matsumoto's arms. Additionally, Matsumoto later confronted the suspect they were chasing after and got slashed across his eye, gaining his trademark scar.)

Murder
	Location: Douji Hiramune's room in Ayumi's apartment complex Victim: Douji Hiramune Cause of death: Slash wound Suspects: Serial killer from 20 years ago

The police department arrive and are confused as the letter they were expecting was "N" as the previous victims had the letters "E", "S", "W" and were thought to be cardinal direction.

Murder (Past)
	Location: Boukawa's house Victim: Tsuguharu Boukawa Cause of death: Slash wound Suspects: Serial killer from 20 years ago

Murder (Past)
	Location: Mugita's house Victim: Atsunori Mugita Cause of death: Slash wound Suspects: Serial killer from 20 years ago

Murder (Past)
	Location: Street Victim: Superintendent Morimura Cause of death: Hit by a car Suspects: Serial killer from 20 years ago

Murder (Past)
	Location: Nabei's house Victim: Susumu Nabei Cause of death: Slash wound Suspects: Serial killer from 20 years ago

Conan and the police notice Hiramune's left hand was on his keyboard on the keys "Ctrl" and "C" and his right hand holding the wire of his mouse. Takagi and the Detective Boys decide to accompany him and his interrogation of the victim's relatives: Boukawa's widow, Mugita's younger brother, and Nabei's son. Conan than realizes the victims share one thing in connection, Mahjong. It's confirmed that 20 years ago, all the victims save for Morimura attended a popular Mahjong parlor on a regular basis.

Later, Takagi comes to the conclusion that a man named Dokurou Kibo is the serial killer. Aside of his past as an ex-con, Kibo had some very incriminating actions und his belt: he used to bicker about different themes with the victims in the parlor, and the last one (which he had with Hiramune alone) finished with him flipping their table (and damaging the tiles on it) while loudly swearing to kill them. After talking with said parlor manager, Takagi takes one of the old and damaged Mahjong tiles and keeps it in his pocket.

In the meantime Matsumoto, having learned about Takagi's more daring attitude in this case and how he and Satou were planning to go to a spa once it was all over, fears for Takagi's safety. He says that many times, when a someone in the police makes a promise to his loved ones, he or she is likely to die in the line of duty; he adds that Morimura was one month away from getting married and died when, during the case, he got reckless in an attempt to impress his girlfriend...

People

Superintendent Morimura
	Deceased (car hit) Superintendent of Tokyo Metropolitan Police

Douji Hiramune
	Victim (slashed) 41 years old Criminal psychologist

Tsuguharu Boukawa
	Deceased (slashed) 50 years old Boukawa General Hospital doctor

Maiko Boukawa
	62 years old Tsuguharu Boukawa's wife

Atsunori Mugita
	Deceased (slashed) 42 years old Associate professor of science and engineering, Touto University

Hidekuni Mugita
	56 years old Atsunori Mugita's younger brother

Susumu Nabei
	Deceased (slashed) 34 years old Lawyer

Eiki Nabei
	25 years old Susumu Nabei's son

Dokurou Kibo
	Ex-con

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Sato kissed Takagi

Dokurou Kibo is properly apprehended, but he has a powerful alibi: he was been in jail in the years between the last victim's death and Hiramune's murder, so he cannot be the killer and he doesn't intend to commit any crimes from then on. Even more so, he doesn't recognize Matsumoto, which would make no sense since Matsumoto was a member of the original investigation team and was attacked by the killer. Matsumoto adds that he felt pain in his scar when interrogating Kusumoto and when Hiramune's corpse was found, but upon seeing Kibo he felt nothing on it, which he sees as a signal that the case is about to be resolved.

Conan notices something strange about Hiramune's dying message, and realizes this indicates the person who murdered him was a copycat killer. He was found pressing the "C" key of his computer and had arranged the mouse's cord to look like a rat's tail, hinting at a 'cat' being involved; 'Copycat killers0 are named as such because they imitate other killers, just like kittens learn to hunt imitating their parents.

Conan reveals to Sato that Douji Hiramune was actually the serial killer from the past and that Eiki Nabei murdered him. Nabei Jr. had sort-of witnessed his father's murder as a child, having been in the room next door; he heard a part of his father's talk with his killer (but since they spoke in mahjong terms, he didn't understand the core of it), as well as the killer's whistling, and was the only of the three relatives who knew both details (Boukawa's widow and Mugita's brother only knew about the mahjong). 15 years later Nabei saw Hiramune's challenge on the TV, recalled such details and realised he was the one who murdered his dad and others; he located Hiramune and murdered him in the same way he used to kill his victims... in other words, he became a copycat killer. Nabei Jr. was also the person Haibara saw around the day Hiramune died, which happened right after he had his revenge.

Additionally, Conan says that Hiramune also killed Morimura and scarred Matsumoto when they were this close to actually catch him; in return, Matsumoto managed to snatch Hiramune's katana and slash him across his back... and that's the actual reason why Hiramune had a "Z" carved on his corpse: Eiki Nabei had noticed that scar after killing him and carved the "Z" to hide it, attempting to throw the police off and make them chase after a murderer that was already dead.

Takagi, who prior to this had been ordered to bring Eiki Nabei to the police station so he would meet up with Dokuro Kibo, steps into the apparently empty Nabei household. He's then attacked from behind, beaten bloody with a baseball bat, and handcuffed by the very angry Nabei...

Hostage Situation
	Location: Nabei's house Victim: Wataru Takagi Suspects: Eiki Nabei

When Takagi regains consciousness, he asks Nabei Jr. if he's the new killer, and Nabei confirms it and explains that he killed Hiramune as revenge for his father Susumu Nabei, murdered in the same house.

20 years ago Hiramune, Mugita, Nabei Sr. and Boukawa usually discussed about perfect crimes while playing mahjong, and at some point the last three hotly disagreed with Hiramune (then a very promising psychology student), who believed that the 'perfect crime' existed. Boukawa and Mugita were the ones who showed more repulse and specially when Hiramune said he wanted to prove his theories, so he killed them with a katana that he stole from Boukawa's home out of fear they would publically denounce him as a prospect killer and ruin his future.

Nabei Sr. knew all of this and stayed quiet out of fear, believing that he contributed to the crime by joking around and not taking Hiramune seriously. Five years later, however, he couldn't withstand his guilt, told Hiramune to come to his house and asaid that they should turn themselves in, so Hiramune killed him too. Nabei Jr. heard the discussion and Hiramune's whistling, and kept it to himself until he learned about the deadline for the investigation of his dad's murder and saw Hiramune on TV, which made him contact Hiramune under the excuse of having extra information about the crimes...

When Nabei Jr. finishes the 'tale', Takagi's cellphone beeps: it's Satou, who has been told to join him. Nabei sees this as a chance to set a hostage situation, refers to Satou as Takagi's girlfriend and tries to force Takagi to reply but Takagi breaks his cellphone instead, which alerts Satou and makes her call for reinforcements. Matsumoto immediately sends a whole squad to both apprehend Nabei and rescue Takagi.

Nabei Jr. gets angry, takes his baseball bat and beats Takagi even bloodier. Then he sees someone getting close to the door, which distracts him from Takagi; he sees this as a chance and tries to tackle him down. Nabei, however, reacts and shoots him in the chest...

At the hospital Shiratori greets Satou and the Detective Kids, who think Takagi died due to the promise he made to Sato. He calms them down and reveals that Takagi's life was saved by the mahjong tile he had in his shirt pocket, which stopped the bullet that would've killed him otherwise. Megure arrives and says that thanks to Takagi distracting Nabei from the other policemen, they managed to apprehend him easier and nobody else was injured; now he's right out of surgery, and soundly asleep.

The next morning, Sato visits Takagi in his room and tells him that the whistling came from Hiramune remembering the days spent in the mahjong parlor before he killed his partners. She then tells him that they won't be able to go to the spa since he's injured, and he dejectedly says that "it's always so close", referring to the times when he and Sato almost kissed. Then, she smiles and leans even closer...

When Megure, Matsumoto, Chiba and Shiratori approach the roo to visit Takagi, the Detective Boys tell him he's asleep and convince them to return later. When they're gone, they open the door and are overjoyed to see Satou leaning over Takagi, happily kissing him on the lips.

Manga to anime changes

• Superintendent Matsumoto's flashback of the serial killer attacking is moved to the very beginning to the story arc, before the scar and ginger case even begins.
• In the manga, there is a scene where Conan fetches the two candidates for Lady Shodo's fortune and persuades them to come eat the sushi that Lady Shodo has laid out for them, by claiming that the boy of Lady Shodo's memories loved to eat sushi. This scene is cut in the anime.
• In the manga, one of the candidates for the fortune - Banba - justifies his pursuit of Lady Shodo's fortune by stating that as an adult, he has different circumstances to consider than he did as a child. This line is cut in the anime.
• The song that the serial killer whistles is explicitly identified as Paul McCartney's "Let it Be" in the manga; the anime changes the melody to an entirely different one and merely describes it as "a song that was popular twenty years ago", likely to avoid royalty issues.
• In the manga, Inspector Megure relays the additional information about the serial killer to Superintendent Matsumoto at the latter's desk (as the superintendent has just been jolted from the flashback mentioned above); in the anime, the two men have this exchange while looking into an interrogation room.
• In the manga, a flashback has Morimura showing Matsumoto a picture of his fiancèe. In the anime he's seen happily slipping an engagement ring on the ring finger of said fiancée, a short-haired girl whose back is turned at the camera so her face can't be seen.
• In the anime, right in between the scene where Takagi is shot by Nabei and the one where Satou and the kids learn that he's been injured, there's an additional sequence where Takagi falls on his back, calling out Satou's name in his mind and extending his handcuffed hands before he passes out.

Gallery

• 

  Kogoro surprised when he sees that all three people including Taisuke Hoya, Ryuhei Kusumoto, Sogo Banba have a scar

• 

  Conan and the serial killer under the moon

• 

  The Detective Boys secretly watching as Sato kisses Takagi

See also

• Season 18