Special Volume 17

Chronology
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Volume 17
Information
Release date:	January 28, 2003
Original Work:	Gosho Aoyama
Manga:	Yutaka Abe, Denjiro Maru, Takahisa Taira
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-142787-1
Publisher:	Shogakukan
Back Cover Image
Conan Side Image

Special Volume 17 was released on January 28, 2003 in Japan.

Cast

Characters

Conan Edogawa

Ran Mouri

Kogoro Mouri

Juzo Megure

Hiroshi Agasa

Ayumi Yoshida

Genta Kojima

Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya

Wataru Takagi

Gadgets

Gadgets

Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Voice-Changing Bowtie

Power-Enhancing Kick Shoes

The Body in the Locked Room Bombing Case

File 5 - Part 1

On a warm night, Conan and Rachel decide to visit Dr. Agasa. When they walk inside his home, an mini explosion occurs, blowing smoke everywhere. Dr Agasa explains that he was trying to make a boiled egg by way of the microwave, but the egg exploded. With the doctor is his friend, 56-year-old former university professor Fumio Ezaki, fixing the microwave.

After some time had past, Agasa worries that they return to the university, but Ezaki sternly objects, stating that the university’s laboratories are crammed up, adding on that the professor has all basic tools and household goods and basic necessities, all free of charge and can work at their own leisurely pace. Agasa states that tomorrow is the Imperial Science and Technology Award Ceremony and Party and he will be in attendance. Ezaki says he will be there as well along with three of his friend.

The next day, the ceremony event and party takes place. Agasa, with Rachel and Conan in tow, meet Haruki Yukawa, the inaugural winner of the Imperial Science and Technology Award. His assistant, 30-year-old Susumi Endo, reminds Haruki that it’s time to take his medicine. Susumi hands over a glass of water and his medication; Haruki explains that he has been up all night writing his thesis and it’s caused his stomach to ache from time to time. He consumes his medication right there on the spot in front of everyone.

Ezaki, who said he would be at the party, has yet to make his presence known, causing Agasa to grow concerned. Haruki states he may be opening the health labs with other students and dismissed Agasa’s concerns stating that Ezaki won’t miss a party. He even offers Agasa a desk at the labs if he wants. Agasa claims that best friends are rare and his circle of friends should be grateful to have met during their student days.

Haruki is called to the stage to give a speech by the lovely 21-year-old university student Hiromi Suzuki, who passes a beautiful bouquet of flowers to him.

The party comes to a peaceful end and everyone says their goodbyes before parting ways. Ezaki and Agasa are encouraged by the others to return to the campus more often. Ezaki realizes he left his lighter inside the research lab and asks Haruki for his key to retrieve it. Haruki decides to tag along with Ezaki to help the process. Endo suddenly realizes that forgot to ask Haruki about the preparation for tomorrow’s experiment. Hiromi suggests calling his cell phone, but the call goes straight to voicemail. The inside of the elevator is made of metal on 5 sides and the top is made of plastic; the call should have went through. Endo suggests that he’ll wait for Haruki to leave the elevator and then try again. Agasa, Conan, and Rachel take their leave.

On the walk home, Agasa becomes emotional in a good way, praising Haruki for his hard work and dedication to the scientific studies. Haruki grew up poor in the rough parts of town, in the worst of conditions, with no parents to guide him on the right path. Agasa was grateful for their time together, but a loud terrifying scream interrupts his speech and heartfelt moment. Conan wastes no time in running back to the building with Rachel and Agasa behind him. They see Hiromi and Endo trembling in fear outside, what appears to be, a literal blood soaked elevator.

Getting closer to the scene, Conan discovers a grisly sight: an uninjured but deeply horrified Ezaki, covered in blood with the exception of his face, but it doesn’t belong to him, it belongs to Haruki, who has been gruesomely disemboweled, his literal intestines and guts are hanging out and sitting in his lap while pieces of his insides scatter on the elevator floor and his blood covered legs, Haruki’s face, also covered in blood, his corpse seated on the elevator floor in a massive pool of his own blood, his milky white soulless eyes staring at both Endo and Hiromi. The entire elevator is a literal blood bath. What is even wilder is the testimony of Ezaki: Haruki spontaneously combusted right before his very eyes.

Murder

Location: University elevator

Victim: Haruki Yukawa

Age: 57 years old

Cause of death: Exsanguination via disembowelment

Suspects: Fumio Ezaki, Hirumi Suzuki, and Susumi Endo

A literal bloodbath awaits everyone.

Doctor Agasa is nearly numb before being moved to tears at the sudden yet gruesome death of Haruki. As a sign of respect, Agasa closes Haruki’s eyes before being demanded by Conan to step away from the crime scene. Agasa begins to harden up as his sadness turns into anger, flat out accusing both Hiromi and Endo of this grisly incident. Both did possess the opportunity: Hiromi did give Haruki a bouquet of flowers before the crime and Endo did give Haruki a glass of water along with his medicine. Neither of these things had a bomb hidden.

Despite Haruki being torn from literally inside out, Agasa hugs his dearly departed best friend and bids him a farewell to the afterlife. Conan menacingly growls at Agasa to step away from the crime scene so he may analyze any clues left behind. Seeing Agasa shed genuine tears in a full blown cry for a murdered friend sends rage down Conan’s spine, internally promising to expose the killer in this murder case of an unprecedented scale.

File 6 - Part 2

Picking up from Part 1, Inspector Meguire arrives on the scene, but quickly wishes he didn’t given the grisly scene of the crime, but states that the flow of justice will continue without delay and won’t rest until the guilty is rightfully punished by the law. The deceased’s name is Haruki Yukawa, aged 57, current university professor, and the the inaugural winner of the Imperial Science and Technology Award. His cause of death is exsanguination, the medical term for blood loss, due to being disemboweled. The investigation team turns to Ezaki who repeats his story, Haruki suddenly, and out of nowhere, spontaneously combusted while riding with him inside the elevator.

Doctor Agasa doubles down on his accusations and claims someone must’ve given Haruki some kind of explosives and made him drink it. This makes everyone turn to Susumi Endo, as he was the one who did give Haruki medicine. The medicine in question turns out to be stomach medicine and not a form of explosives. Conan states that whoever gave Haruki some sort of explosives did an amazing job because there is a lack of gunpowder to be found nor can it be smelled or detected. No sharp weapons can be found. The most disturbing aspect of the murder is that if it truly is a homicide, the victim’s fatal wound came from inside the body coming out. If a sharp weapon like a knife or hook was used, then there would be marks indicating an inward push into the victim, not the other way around.

Agasa again goes after the emotionally distraught Hiromi, claiming she must’ve smuggled a bomb in the bouquet of flowers she gave to Haruki before he went up on stage. Hiromi denies giving him anything but flowers and she respected him too much to even consider taking his life. Conan quickly denounces this because the flowers Hiromi gave to Haruki, although covered in blood, are still intact, however, Conan notices that they have began to wilt despite just blooming freshly when in Haruki’s possession just moments ago.

Conan asks Agasa to remain calm of his emotions; he can not accuse someone of a crime when his mood flairs up. It’s not good for the investigation and police will legally remove or arrest Agasa regardless of his emotional connection to the victim. It is indeed deeply saddening and frustrating to lose a beloved friend and fellow devoted scientist to such gruesome violence but allow justice to take form. Agasa questions on how he can be calm when his friend of 3 decades has been slaughtered in less than 3 seconds, but begins cooling down due to the commanding presence of Inspector Meguire. The law will ensure due process and the murderer of the professor’s friend will be brought to justice, just as Inspector Meguire promised.

Turning back to the crime scene without going inside, Conan spots a corner inside the elevator that is voided of blood. It is determined that Ezaki had been standing in that exact spot. Conan finds it strange that Ezaki’s coat and trousers are drenched in blood with the expectation of his face. According to Ezaki’s own testimony, Haruki exploded out of nowhere, there were no warnings, signs, weird smells, or abnormalities: it just happened suddenly. There is blood on his coat yes, however, even just a little should have tainted his face and hands.

Agasa secretly asks Conan, (referring to him by his real name, Jimmy) if he’s solved the case while still feeling the emotional effects from his slain friend. Agasa continues saying if Haruki had a signal inside the elevator, perhaps his death could have been avoided. When Conan asks about the cell phone, the investigating officer explains that he had a cell phone connection climbing up the elevator and successfully called Inspector Meguire.

Conan discovers that Haruki’s cell phone, contained in an evidence bag, was indeed on, and still is. He leads him to believe that an incident had occurred but the signal didn’t reach the elevator. A small “ching” is heard and Conan tells Rachel that it sounds very similar to that of a microwave. Having a stroke of luck, Conan grabs Agasa and they travel to the second floor in a completely different elevator that hasn’t been blocked by police. Once on the second floor, Conan uses his powered shoes to forcefully open the elevator shaft of the first elevator. He looks down and makes a discovery. With a serious face, Conan tells Agasa that he wants to confirm everything before explaining to Agasa that there are things that the doctor should not do going forward in this case.

Conan runs toward Ezaki and “trips”, catching onto the bottom of his coat jacket for leverage. Rachel warns Conan to be careful, but he ignores her and looks at Agasa, telling him it is perfect. Agasa agrees and knows what to do.

  Show spoilers »

Agasa announces to everyone that he knows who the murderer is. The killer managed to do the impossible and blow Haruki up to smithereens in every literal part of the phase. Although it sounds something out of a science fiction-horror film, this was achieved by using a small machine called a multi-kilowatt plasma-heating magnetron. These devices are not small; they weigh hundreds of pounds, require liquid cooling systems (water or oil jackets to prevent them from melting themselves), and are roughly the size of a water heater. Physically mounting this on top of a moving elevator cab without altering the elevator's counterweights and tripping mechanical balance alarms is a massive engineering hurdle, thereby turning a harmless everyday elevator into a lethal microwave oven.

First and foremost, for the sake of non-scientific civilians, a standard kitchen mangetron will be used. A magnetron is the high-powered vacuum tube that generates the electromagnetic waves (microwaves) used to heat one’s food. It converts high-voltage electricity into powerful, 2.45 GHz radio waves, which then cause water molecules in your food to vibrate rapidly and generate heat. The magnetron relies on a combination of electricity, magnetic fields, and structured metal cavities to generate microwave energy.

Second, water molecules are electrical dipoles. This means they have a positive charge at one end and a negative charge at the other. When the magnetron shoots microwaves into the oven, the electric field pulls these charges in opposite directions. The terrifying part is the speed. The electric field reverses direction 2.45 billion times per second. To keep up, the water molecules must twist back and forth at that exact same frantic frequency. As billions of these molecules bump and violently rub against each other, the resulting molecular friction generates intense thermal energy throughout the mass. Materials with no water molecules are completely ignored by the waves. But almost anything containing moisture will be instantly brought to a furious boil—while dry organic materials are simply scorched to a crisp.

Finally, a real life example can be drawn back to Agasa’s house: Agasa placed two eggs in his personal microwave and tried to have hard boiled eggs for dinner, but ended up with scrambled eggs instead. The resulting explosion from the eggs completely destroyed the microwave. What actually happened was the waves easily penetrate the porous calcium carbonate eggshell. The waves are immediately absorbed by the water molecules heavily concentrated inside both the egg white (albumen) and the yolk. Unlike a stovetop where heat moves slowly from the outside in, the microwave heats the entire liquid volume of the egg almost simultaneously.

The moisture in the yolk evaporates, causing it to violently expand. But because the egg is encased in a hard shell, that evaporated moisture has nowhere to escape. The internal pressure has no choice but to skyrocket. Now, this simple, cautionary kitchen warning becomes a gruesome murder method when you replace the egg with our victim, Haruki Yukawa. The laws of physics unfortunately apply to the human body as well—though with a few distinct, terrifying exceptions. Unlike a uniform egg, a human being is a complex network of tissues. Even if the internal organs rupture from the intense steam generation, the outer boundaries of the body create a completely different kind of pressure trap.

Haruki Yukawa was a well-known heavyset man who rarely missed a meal. Now, while the human body averages sixty to seventy percent water inside the boundaries of the skin, that number is never universal. The exact amount varies significantly between individuals based on their body composition. Although the moisture inside his internal organs rapidly evaporated due to the intense microwave effects, human skin is surprisingly tough and resilient. Because it can stretch and resist tearing, the internal steam pressure inside his torso continued to get higher and higher. The fatal trigger was a simple habit. Roughly an hour or two before stepping into that elevator, Haruki consumed stomach medicine—and drank a full glass of water to wash it down. That concentrated pool of fluid became the perfect, highly volatile target for the killer’s hidden weapon.

Haruki was completely trapped, with absolutely nowhere to go. He was surrounded on all sides by solid steel walls. Because of the killer’s modifications, the invisible waves and chaotic frequencies were distributed evenly throughout the entire cab. Blasted by thousands of watts of raw micro energy—with zero protection, no defense, and his mind rightfully racing while registering the otherworldly, agonizing pain through it all—the internal steam moisture continued to build exponentially. The pressure skyrocketed second by second, until the inevitable, horrifying breaking point. The structural tissue failed, and Haruki’s stomach violently exploded from within, his intestines, guts, and pieces of his stomach laying on his lap—leaving the police with a truly gruesome and unforgettable scene to discover. Committing the slaughter this way, the killer successfully fooled everyone into thinking Haruki held onto some make-believe bomb or drank an overly superconductive explosive liquid compound that snuck into his system, thereby sending investigators on a wild goose chase for typical bomb fragments and run analysis tests for foreign chemicals that would never be found. In a twisted sense of humor, Haruki was the bomb.

Inspector Meguire states that having a magnetron inside, on, or near a public elevator is not only extremely dangerous but also illegal under the Radio Act. This law treats the electromagnetic spectrum as critical national infrastructure. High-frequency equipment (like a raw magnetron) requires strict licensing and a "Technical Conformity Mark" (Giteki). Operating an unshielded, high-powered emitter that actively disrupts telecommunications (like blocking the officer's cell signal) carries severe prison time and millions of yen in fines under unlicensed radio station laws. In order for this to be true, they have to find the illegal mangetron.

Dr. Agasa steps forward, pointing up at the ceiling. He states that there is indeed one hidden inside the elevator structure—mounted face down and aimed directly at anyone standing inside the cab. The magnetron’s opening is sealed by a mundane mica cover, otherwise known as a waveguide sheet. In an ordinary kitchen microwave, this heat-resistant insulation board protects the delicate antenna from food splatters, grease, and moisture. Because of its dull, industrial color, it can easily be mistaken for a harmless element of the elevator ceiling. Elevator cab builders frequently use matching laminate sheets on both the ceilings and the wall panels to create a seamless interior. The killer weaponized this exact design choice, using a genuine radio-transparent mica window to mask a deadly engineering trap right in plain sight.

The killer had to invent a highly illegal, heavily modified 'focusing waveguide tube' alongside the magnetron just to prevent the waves from hitting the metal walls and detonating the building's electrical system. With this fact laid bare, and so much evidence pointing toward the lab panels, the pool of suspects vanishes. The guilty party must be someone with a brilliant, lifetime specialty in microwave research and engineering. That terrifying, once-in-a-generation engineering madman is sitting right among us. He is a former university professor—and tragically, one of Dr. Agasa’s closest friends: Fumio Ezaki.

The immense weight of the multi-kilowatt plasma-heating magnetron mentioned earlier required Ezaki visiting the award venue earlier than everyone. He went straight to the elevator, and wired his contraption up. That’s why Ezaki completely missed the entirety of the award ceremony and subsequent party that followed immediately after, only showing up that night after the crowd dispersed. Messing with the university’s electrical grid is a serious violation and raises a red flag, however, given his close ties with the university and friendship with Haruki, Ezaki could easily state he was conducting a scientific experiment in the name of academics and all eyes would be diverted. With his knowledge of microwaves, only he possesses the skills to strengthen the microwaves to literally cook a man alive from the inside out.

Ezaki vehemently denies the gruesome, highly illegal accusations made against him, stating he was also inside the elevator as well, carrying the risk that he could have been brutally killed too. The professor says that Endo’s phone call to Haruki didn’t go through, mainly because the lethal microwaves shooting down were blocking the signal. If one were to put a cell phone inside a running microwave, no calls would go through. Conan chimes in and states that the lethal elevator microwave worked too well. There are a few clues to look at. The first being the flowers that Hiromi gave to Haruki: they were fully blossomed, but after the murder was committed, they wilted. The gentle, soft wilting proves the heating happened uniformly from the inside out, targetting only the water content while leaving the dry organic structure of the petals visually smooth and unburnt.

The second clue is the victim himself, Haruki Yukawa. Although deceased and unable to speak, he was able to leave the investigation a vital clue: his eyes, which are now a haunting white. This is the immediate physical result of microwave cataractogenesis and thermal keratopathy. The clear proteins inside the human lens are highly sensitive to heat. Because the eye is filled with fluid and lacks blood vessels to dissipate energy, your invisible 2.45 GHz waves superheated the orbit instantly, cooking those clear lens proteins until they clumped into a solid, opaque white—exactly like an egg white solidifying in a hot pan. This wasn't a natural medical event. Those milky white eyes prove Haruki was looking directly up at the decorative mica ceiling panel the exact millisecond Ezaki flooded that sealed box with a lethal, concentrated payload. It is perhaps that Haruki realized his life was coming to a gruesome end when he looked at Ezaki across the elevator shielded with protected. Despite his agonizing pain and suffering, he looked up at the ceiling in an act of defiance and left the investigators a clue to point to what happened inside that elevator.

There is a little more evidence that Ezaki has to offer, unfortunately for him, it’s the anchor that ties everything together and gives Inspector Meguire the authority to walk Ezaki down with handcuffs: the inside of his thick coat jacket. The outside of the jacket looks like ordinary wool, perfectly matching the everyday wardrobe of a university professor. The inside lining, however, is a dense, ultra-fine weave of metal-infused radiofrequency (RF) shielding fabric (made of woven silver or nickel fibers). While it feels silk-smooth to the touch, it possesses a completely different, almost synthetic weight and slickness compared to standard fabrics. This lining served as Ezaki's personal, flexible Faraday shield. He knew that even with a precise waveguide, microwave frequencies would scatter off Haruki's 280-pound frame inside that sealed steel box. The smooth metal-mesh lining reflected those stray waves away while he stood in the corner, keeping his own internal organs safe while he stood inches away from a horrific execution. The blood soaked jacket alone is not enough to convict for murder, however, it proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Ezaki possessed the mind to pursue his murderous act and didn’t look back. When locked with the denatured milky white eyes of Haruki, Endo’s missed phone call, Hiromi’s lightly wilted flowers, and the sci-fi technology murder weapon that personally has ties to the suspect, the modified jacket will serve as the legal loophole that no attorney could break.

With the police finding the multi-kilowatt plasma-heating magnetron and the modified focusing waveguide tube above the elevator, Ezaki confesses, stating that he and Haruki co-authored an award-winning thesis together an submitted it to the committee. The thing is, the committee could crown one person with the victory IF their thesis was chosen: Haruki would proceed to erase Ezaki’s name without his consent, and a month later, Haruki won the award. This wasn’t the first incident, Haruki has been doing this for the past 30 years, and it did not stop there unfortunately. Haruki would pull the strings behind the stage to have Ezaki removed from the university. Ezaki states that what he has done was exceptionally evil, takes full responsibility for his actions, and apologizes to everyone involved.

He looks at Endo and Hiromi, who remind him so much of himself in his younger years, ready and full of life to jump into the world of science. Ezaki never actually intended to have witnesses to his crime because he knew what a monstrously gruesome site awaited once the elevator doors opened. Instead of lashing out at them because it was their actions that added to his downfall, he apologizes for the trauma he inflicted on them. He could have used legal connections and had Haruki investigated and prosecuted, filed a complaint with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), but his rage blew up until, he stops and looks at the site of the elevator, where Haruki once stood.. Though he is grateful that another worthy scientist is what became his downfall, he expresses profound deep regret for turning his academic gift into a horrifying tragedy instead of trying to make the world a better place. He ends his remorseful confession with a rather deadpan emotionless face and a chilling note to Dr. Agasa: “please chose your friends carefully in the next life.” Ezaki is formally arrested in connection to Haruki’s murder.

Later that night, Dr. Agasa walks home, still feeling the effects of the crime. Conan is beside him, telling him that a pain of this magnitude won’t go away overnight. Agasa calls him by his real name, Jimmy (Shinichi), completely forgetting that Rachel is behind him. Agasa is completely caught off guard and quickly explains that Conan just reminds him of Jimmy with his quick reflexes and theories. Rachel drops her suspicions and agrees with the Doctor. She also tells Agasa that no matter what life throws at them, the three of them, Rachel, Conan, and Agasa, will always remain the best of friends. The three savage what is left of the night, ending the story with smiles as they continue to walk down the quiet moon-kissed street.

People

Fumio Ezaki
	56 years old University Professor

Haruki Yukawa
	57 years old Victim (Disemboweled) Award Recipient

Susumi Endo
	30 years old Haruki’s assistant

Hirumi Suzuki
	21 years old University student

Cover in other countries

China

Germany

Hong Kong

Indonesia

Korea

Malaysia (Chinese)

Malaysia (Malay)

Rep. of China (Taiwan)

Singapore (Chinese)

Spain (Spanish)

Thailand

Vietnam

See also

• Detective Conan Special
• Special Volume 11-20