Volume 26
| Volume 26 | |||
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| Release date: | February 18, 2000 | ||
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| Chapters: | 254-263 | ||
| ISBN: | ISBN 4-09-125496-9 | ||
| Publisher: | Shogakukan | ||
| English release date: | November 18, 2008 | ||
| English ISBN: | ISBN 1-4215-1678-0 | ||
| English Publisher: | Viz Media | ||
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| Prev volume: | « Volume 25 | ||
| Next volume: | Volume 27 » | ||
| List of chapters • List of cases | |||
Volume 26 was released on February 18, 2000 in Japan.
Contents
Cast
Gadgets
Chapters
Dangerous Cave Case
File 254 - An Infatuated Heart
Conan is eventually saved thanks to Ran's blood donation. He wonders how Ran discovered the truth and what he should do. Heiji and Kazuha come to visit Conan at the hospital, and Heiji suggests Shinichi should tell Ran the whole truth, as she's waiting only for it. During the night, Haibara sneaks into Conan's room and takes aim at him with a gun.
School Play Murder Case
Gadgets introduced
| Voice-Changing Face Mask | |
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File 255 - The Intruder's Sudden Arrival
Haibara tells Conan she was actually spotted by the Organization after the hotel case with Pisco, and she made a deal with them : her life spared in exchange for Shinichi's and all his relatives' death. Eventually, Haibara shoots...a bunch of flowers at Conan, mocking him but telling him the possibility that there could have been another Black Organization member at the party that night. She talks about Ran's discovery but doesn't really recommend that Shinichi should tell Ran the truth. She suggests either that solution, or to remain silent, or... The day after, Conan seems back up and about, though with a little cold, and insists to attend Ran's school play in which she will headline. A strange man strongly resembling Shinichi sits in the audience, smirking, being attentively watched by Conan. Kogoro and Kazuha came as well, and a group of friends, all of them working at Beika Hospital, are having a drink, waiting for the play to begin. During the play, as Ran is on stage, dressed as a princess, Sonoko tells Dr. Araide, who is supposed to play the knight charming, to prepare to enter the stage, but is flabbergasted as the knight isn't Araide. As the unknown knight and Ran are about to kiss each other, one of the hospital employees screams out in pain and drops dead.
File 256 - Concealed Truth
The victim, Kohei Kamata, died after swallowing cyanide, probably put in his drink. His comrades from the hospital are suspected one after the other, along with Ayako, a girl from Ran's high school who was serving drinks at the refreshment. She is the hospital's president's daughter and had recently broke off her engagement with Kohei. She served him coke instead of iced coffee, hoping he would come to see her while changing drinks. Mai, Kohei's friend, had proposed to fetch drinks before the beginning of the play, and she gave all of them to her other comrades Yota and Yumemi, sitting next to Kohei.
File 257 - Revival Under the Threat of Death
Shinichi astounds everyone, Ran in first, and sheds light on the case.
People
Elevator Murder Case
File 258 - Momentary Rest
The students of Teitan High School are asked to clean up the school on the day following the fair; therefore, that morning, Ran heads to Shinichi’s house (with Haibara, who is impersonating Conan so as to not raise suspicion) so that they can go to school together (when she arrives, Shinichi is still changing). Shinichi is very happy that he has regained his body (although when he sees Ran, he pretends that her repeated ringing of the doorbell annoys him), but Haibara warns him that if she had not impersonated Conan during the fair and Hattori had not told everyone at the fair to avoid telling outsiders about the murder (and thus Shinichi’s involvement in it) (for “it will damage the reputation of the school”), he would have gotten into a lot of troble. She continues to say that he should keep a low profile, but Shinichi interrupts her and asks (in a very sincere and curious manner) why she is doing so much for him. Haibara is astonished by this question (but since her back is facing Shinichi, he does not notice this), but quickly regains her composure and says that if Conan’s identity were exposed (and leaked to the Black Organization), her days would be numbered as well, and that, for the sake of safety, she wants to see the effect of her drug on others before trying it herself. Shinichi seems to accept her explanations.
Soon, Shinichi is prepared, and the three head out together, with the two highschoolers chatting avidly and Haibara appearing completely uninterested. They meet the rest of the Detective Boys on their way, and Haibara silently joins them; Shinichi greets them, but this is met with surprise and confusion, which makes him realize that he is no longer one of them. Ran, noticing that they are running out of time, tells Shinichi to hurry up, but as Shinichi is still not fully accustomed to this new reality, he says “wait, Ran-nēchan”, which makes her wonder if he has a problem (and Haibara is watching this from afar); Shinichi thus has to fake a smile and say that he is just joking.
Once at school, Ran and Shinichi are subject to incessant mocking from their classmates; they also tell Shinichi that after he was gone, they got a new English teacher (i.e. Jodie Santemillion), who they describe as a “voluptuous foreign chick”. Shinichi is tempted by this description and wants to know more, which causes Ran to interrupt somewhat resignedly and say to Shinichi that he still has not told her about “the important thing”. Shinichi tries to answer, but since all their classmates congregate around them to eavesdrop, he is forced to stop in the middle of a sentence in order to disperse the crowd. He later tells Ran (after ensuring that nobody is listening in this time) that he would like to dine with her at 8 p.m. in a very classy restaurant. Ran agrees, although she is unsure of what Shinichi is trying to achieve through such a dinner.
Dinner time quickly arrives; Ran and Shinichi meet at the restaurant (which is located in a tall building in Beika) and sit down at a table beside the window. Ran confesses that she has believed for a long time that Conan is Shinichi, and that Shinichi asked Agasa to invent a drug to shrink him into a child after running into some sort of trouble. Shinichi, surprised by the accuracy of Ran’s conjecture (which she now deems rather silly), has no choice but to laugh awkwardly.
After a while, the topic of the conversation returns to “the important thing”. Shinichi remains hesitant and is unable to summon the courage to get to the point, and at this instant someone screams loudly on the other side of the restaurant. Then, very soon, people around Ran and Shinichi start talking about things such as someone dying in the elevator and some company executive being shot in the head. Shinichi tries to not let these things affect the conversation between Ran and him, but Ran knows what the murder case attracts him irresistably. Therefore, she (in delight) tells him that he can go investigate, and also jokes that unlike Shinichi, she will not suddenly disappear and go into hiding. Shinichi is grateful for her understanding, and, after a short apology, springs up and runs towards the exit from the restaurant, promising Ran that he will come back soon.
Translation changes
- In File 258, Shinichi is shown to still retain some of his habits as Conan. One such example is him referring to Ran as Ran-nēchan. As the Viz Media versions of the manga tends to omit the usage of Japanese Honorifics, (save for the manga version of "Solitary Island of the Princess and the Dragon King's Palace" in Volume 36 and "A Friendship That Can't Be Bought" in Volume 39), Shinichi instead is asking for Ran to hold his hand when they cross the street on the way to school.
File 259 - A Tranquil Time
Megure and Takagi are already at the crime scene when Shinichi arrives. They have found that the CEO of a game development company, Taiji Tatsumi, had been shot in the forehead in the elevator and had died there. Furthermore, Takagi reports that the company occupies from the 24th to the 36th floor of the building (the restaurant is on the 38th floor), and that the elevator in question can be used exclusively by company employees. In addition, the company is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the restaurant that day, but Taiji said at the last minute that he was feeling unwell, and that instead of hosting the party, he would go home. Since the Taiji’s suit is slightly messed up, Takagi deduces that he met an armed robber when he was leaving the building. However, Shinichi, who now is examining Taiji’s body, begs to differ. He points out that since people could enter the elevator, no robber would rob there and risk being caught in the act; also, Taiji’s suit is messed up partially because his sleeves are unbuttoned, but no robber would bother unfastening the victim’s buttons. Megure, who is surprised to see Shinichi come out of nowhere after months missing, yells “Kudo”, and Shinichi tells him to shush (and not say his name) and to introduce him to others as a junior police agent. Megure agrees, although he does not understand why Shinichi suddenly wants to associate himself with the police (before, he always liked pointing out that he was not affiliated with them).
At this moment, the three company employees who last saw Taiji before his death, along with Taiji’s daughter Sakurako (who came to the three employees right after Taiji had entered the elevator), are brought to Megure. He asks whether any of them knew the time when they saw Taiji, and Sakurako said while crying that it was 8:30 sharp, as indicated by the wristwatch of her boyfriend Satoru Ooba (he is one of the three employees mentioned above, and he stayed with Sakurako in front of the elevator while the other two headed to the party) and by the bang of the confetti cannon that signaled the commencement of the party (the party was supposed to start at 8:30 sharp). Sakurako further explains that she was able to see Ooba’s wristwatch because he was touching her earrings and telling her that his present for her was a pink necklace that would combine very well with her pink earrings. Shinichi finds it suspicious that Sakurako could see the dial of the wristwatch in the dark (for Taiji ordered his subordinates to keep the lights in that part of the building off until the start of the party) and when the dial was facing outwards instead of inwards (i.e. towards the face and eyes of Sakurako). Ooba explains that his wristwatch would light up automatically in the dark, and that Shinichi has wrongfully assumed that he was touching Sakurako’s left earring with his left hand: in fact, he was touching her right earring with his left hand; in this way, the dial faces inwards and the time can be read easily. Shinichi accepts this explanation, but points out that in order to touch the right earring, it is more natural to use the right hand, unless it is occupied at that moment. This insinuation renders Ooba speechless, stunned and slightly frightened.
Back in the restaurant, Ran keeps wondering what Shinichi wants to tell her, but all that appears in her head are absurd ideas and unlikely candidates. A waitress interrupts her guesses and brings desserts, but Ran tells her to come later, as she wants to have it with Shinichi. Upon learning that “her detective friend” is tackling the case now, the waitress giggles and tells Ran that 20 years ago, there was also a murder case in the restaurant, and a young man, who had come with his girlfriend (who was of Ran’s age) and had sat at Shinichi and Ran’s table, rushed to the crime scene, solved the murder case quickly, came back and proposed to her. The waitress tells Ran joyfully that she thinks that it can happen again, and for a moment a blushing Ran believes so as well, but soon reason tells her that she should abandon this line of thought.
We now return to the case. Ooba finally fires back at Shinichi, and Sakurako defends her boyfriend by saying that he was with other employees before seeing Taiji and was with her (in the party venue) after their encounter. Shinichi presses her and asks whether they went anywhere else, and Sakurako concedes that they did go to the bathroom (so that she could hang Ooba’s present on the neck and put the lipstick back on) before heading to the party. However, she argues that since she was in there for only a few minutes and that he was waiting for and talking to her from out of the bathroom, Ooba could not have done anything. Shinichi disputes her words, contending that since the police have found a pistol (with silencer) and an empty bullet shell in the garbage pipe (which is near the bathroom), Ooba could have taken advantage of those minutes to dispose of the weapon.
Ooba, seeing that Shinichi is suspecting him and only him (he still thinks that Shinichi is a police officer), says that the police are free to perform a gunshot residue test on him to see whether he really murdered Taiji. He is thus led away by some police officers (while confidently saying that the police will find no residue whatsoever), leaving Sakurako with the police and Shinichi. Once he is out of sight, Shinichi asks Sakurako quietly whether she and Ooba were kissing after the other two employees had gone away. She starts blushing immediately and asks, in embarrassment, whether he saw them doing so. Shinichi, who does not seem to notice that he is asking very intimate questions to a complete stranger, explains that Yukiko once told him that only after kissing or eating would women go to the bathroom to put the lipstick back on. He proceeds to enquire how the two kissed, and learns that Sakurako’s back was facing the elevator, that Ooba’s left arm was positioned on her right shoulder and went around her neck such that his hand could reach her left ear, and that before meeting in secret at 8:30 (for they have not told Taiji about the relationship) they had not seen each other that day. Shinichi finally asks whether the earrings were a present from Ooba as well, and Sakurako replies in negative, and details that she has bought them on a whim earlier during the day.
After obtaining this piece of information, Shinichi becomes certain that Ooba was the murderer, but he remains stuck on why Taiji would remain in the elevator and wait for Ooba to shoot him instead of going down, and on how Ooba managed to keep all gunshot residue off him. The people that help him resolve these two mysteries turn out to be a few company employees, who are chatting on the side. They mention that Ooba oversaw the planning of the party, that the party featured the appearance of the new company mascot, and that very different from their expectations, the person inside the mascot costume was Ooba, who was all the while blinking to the employees, perhaps because he wanted to be friendly. Upon hearing this, Shinichi asks whether he (and the police) can see the costume, and after that being shown to him, now everything seems clear.
Despite the progress that he has made on solving the case, Shinichi is extremely worried (and frustrated with himself); he has just been hit by sudden acute pain in the chest, a clear signal that he will soon shrink back to Conan. If this happens, he will be unable to tell Ran “the important thing” and risk having Conan’s identity exposed.
File 260 - The Memorable Place
People
Music Box Case
File 261 - Touching the Music Strings!?
Some time after the "comeback of Shinichi", Conan asks Haibara for some more antidotes, as he would like to meet Ran again in his adult form to tell her the whole truth. Haibara refuses and says it's too late, and it could be dangerous for Conan to swallow another prototype that could kill him. Haibara and the Detective Boys seem delighted to see Conan again, though the Boys are completely ignorant of who Conan really is. Conan looks with dejection at Mouri's agency and complains about how he'll still have to play that game with Ran and Kogoro for the moment.
In the stairs, he hears the music of "Haru Yo Koi" ("Oh Spring, Come") and when entering the agency he sees Ran, Kogoro and a client named Haruna listening carefully to a music box. Haruna Yuki, the young fine arts student, explains she had difficulties to make friends at university therefore she sent a mail at random with her messager asking if the receiver would like to befriend her. A man named Shugo then became her new messager friend and he and Haruna proposed to meet each other some day. But on d-day Haruna found none except a bag with a music box and a messager, probably Shugo's one, and thought Shugo wanted to end the relationship by offering her a present. But suddenly Haruna received some other mails on her messager, from an unknown person, calling her a liar, a thief, etc. to the point Haruna went to see Kogoro and wondered if she hadn't done a mistake when she took away the bag with the box. Conan and Ran help Kogoro to figure out the three notes that sound weird in the tune : ACA. Conan points out that this may be a message from Shugo to Haruna, as the music mechanism has got missing pieces right on these three notes' location. He suggests Kogoro calls Inspector Takagi who can easily get the identity of Shugo's messager former owner, by investigating telephone lines. Takagi tells them that the messager's mails originate from the Ogata family, whom Takagi got in touch with, and they agreed to meet Haruna to explain to her.
Haruna and co turn up at the Ogata's and Haruna is cheerfully welcomed by Shiro, the younger son, but quite reticently by the others, Minoru first, the older son, who believes Haruna came to steal the family's treasure : four old hand-made stamps worth 200 million yens. Haruna and co are invited to stay for dinner and the night, and they learn that Shugo Ogata is actually the family's late grandfather, who was ill and felt really lonely, and accepted to chat with Haruna, whose name and character were the same as his late wife, the family's grandmother. Yet, Shugo passed away recently. Haruna still wonders who is sending her abusing mails. During the night, Ran sees a spooky shady figure looking like a bent old man with a stick, moving stealthily in front of her room, and she screams. When everybody rush over to ask what happened and check the rooms to see if an intruder really sneaked into the house, a huge noise of something heavy falling catches their attention and they hurry to the grandparents' room where it came from, to find Minoru severely injured by a koto, probably beaten in the dark by the stranger Ran saw. Haruna is terrified as she receives on her messager a mail from Shugo saying he was waiting for her.
File 262 - The Vanishing Sound
Minoru is actually alive and the Ogata call the police who search for the intruder but finds none. Ran believes it was Shugo but nobody seems to believe her ghost stories, Conan in first, who thinks it has to do with one of the family members, especially as it happened in the grandfather's room where the family's treasure supposedly is. After a deep investigation, Conan eventually finds out what happened.
File 263 - Spring Has Come?
People
Cover in other countries
See also
| Volumes of the Manga | ||
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| Volume 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 • 51 • 52 • 53 • 54 • 55 • 56 • 57 • 58 • 59 • 60 • 61 • 62 • 63 • 64 • 65 • 66 • 67 • 68 • 69 • 70 • 71 • 72 • 73 • 74 • 75 • 76 • 77 • 78 • 79 • 80 • 81 • 82 • 83 • 84 • 85 • 86 • 87 • 88 • 89 • 90 • 91 • 92 • 93 • 94 • 95 • 96 • 97 • 98 • 99 • 100 • 101 • 102 • 103 • 104 • 105 • 106 |
