Volume 28

Volume 28
Information
Release date:	July 18, 2000
Chapters:	274-284
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-125498-5
Publisher:	Shogakukan
English release date:	March 17, 2009
English ISBN:	ISBN 1-4215-2196-2
English Publisher:	Viz Media
Featured Detective & Keyhole
Kyosuke Kamizu Shizuka Ikenami
Aoyama's death & Conan side images
Chronology
Prev volume:	« Volume 27
Next volume:	Volume 29 »
List of chapters • List of cases

Volume 28 was released on July 18, 2000 in Japan.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Hiroshi Agasa Ai Haibara Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Heiji Hattori Kazuha Toyama Sonoko Suzuki Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Miwako Sato Kiyonaga Matsumoto Shinichi Kudo (background) Makoto Kyogoku (background) Gin (background) Vodka (background) Eri Kisaki (background) Michiko Kurogane (photo)

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Chapters

Bear Hunters Case

File 274 - The Shrunken Target

Haibara and Mitsuhiko have left onion chips on the forest floor in order for Conan’s group to be able to follow them. This ends up working, but after following the onion chips for some time but still not being able to catch up with the missing ones, Conan senses that something is wrong, and he additionally believes Haibara and Mitsuhiko might be hiding from someone due to the blood mark and gunshot that he have noticed earlier. As a result, Conan secretly instructs Agasa to call the people from the motel and the police to investigate the site where Mitsuhiko left his badge.

Meanwhile, the hunters hear a noise in the bushes, and all of them shoot at once. None is able to kill the source of the noise - a rabbit, but this is enough to give Mitsuhiko (who is observing with Haibara from afar) chills and make him understand that Haibara was absolutely right. Agasa protests the shots, but the hunters say that they can distinguish between children and wild animals, and Negoro tells him that this is what he will do if he gets a chance to confront Jubei. Saika replies derisively that Negoro’s bullets are not going to hurt her, as she is sly in that she can approach humans soundlessly and monstrous in that she can overwhelm humans easily even when wounded. Saika adds that he is the only one who is able to take down the beast, and that Jubei has been blind in one eye for twenty years thanks to him. Negoro, noticing that Saika treats his words with scorn and knows Jubei exceptionally well, asks Yasaka about Negoro’s background. Saika responds that according to what he has heard, Saika was once the leader of a hunting organization, and settled down in this forest after meeting Jubei.

Mitsuhiko, now knowing that they definitely cannot approach the group, asks Haibara what they should do. Haibara says that they must eventually reunite with the rest of the Detective Boys, and that for that to happen safely, Conan ought to notice that the deliberately dropped badge is synonymous with a big problem and bring in external help. She continues to say that for the time being, they have to keep walking and trying to relay information to Conan. Later on, they meet the bear cub again, and he stays faithfully with them, and Haibara suffers a severe sprain on her foot. Fortunately, Mitsuhiko is able to help alleviate her pain by fastening surrounding areas with bandages. He is very proud of being able to do this, but the thought that it was the omniscient Conan who told him about it makes his happiness vanish rapidly. However, Haibara is able to re-animate him by saying that who taught him is irrelevant, that what is important is that Mitsuhiko has been able to apply his knowledge in such a critical situation. She goes on to say that Mitsuhiko is the best helper that she can expect in this case, which makes him blush; he then boldly puts Haibara’s arm across his shoulders to support her walk (this makes him blush even more; Haibara notices this and becomes thoughtful), and tries to take the initiative in coming up with a message. In the end, they decide to use various species of mushrooms arranged in a very specific way to encode a message. Namely, they pierce, at different angles, three pieces of mushrooms (fly agaric, matsutake and shiitake in that order) with a tree branch. Then they leave the branch on the forest floor and place one piece of hatsudake and three pieces of shimeji on its side.

Now we return to the group. Yasaka mentions that he has a hunter friend, and Conan asks if his friend is in this forest as well (this doubt arose when Conan saw Yasaka carry with him two types of bullets, which is uncommon for a hunter). Yasaka answers in affirmative, and explains that he has two types of bullets because his friend forgot to bring back-up bullets and thus asked Yasaka to bring some so that if they meet in the forest, Yasaka can give them to him. Meanwhile, Ayumi senses that something is following the group, and Agasa (and Conan) receive a call from a policeman, who reveals that the police have found a man dying from a shot in the stomach and a young bear's body nearby. Contrary to the state of the human body, the cub has been properly buried, and there even is a tomb. The hunters notice the call, and they ask what is going on; Conan hurriedly hangs up and misleads them with a fabricated story. Agasa asks why Conan wants to conceal information from them, and Conan replies that one of them is the murderer, but that without further evidence he cannot narrow down. Conan is not worried about this, however; he believes that Haibara and Mitsuhiko will find a way to convey relevant information to him.

After some more searching, the group does stumble upon the mushrooms that Haibara and Mitsuhiko have prepared. Conan takes a good look at them, is able to understand it and work out the murderer, but act as if he did not and casually tosses the tree branch aside, much to the surprise of Mitsuhiko and to the disappointment of Haibara, who are hiding in some bushes very near him together with the bear cub. As Conan prepares to stun the murderer, Jubei gets nearer to the group stealthily.

File 275 - True Motive

Conan aims, but before he can stun Genta puts himself between him and the murderer, frustrating Conan’s mission and forces him to explain his actions to the other Detective Boys present. Doing so makes him recall what the police have said about the young bear’s body; by thinking for a while about the implications about this piece of information, Conan realizes that there is a flaw in his deduction and proceeds to lower his stun-gun. Haibara and Mitsuhiko, who apparently cannot read Conan’s mind, are shocked by this.

  Show spoilers »

Conan changes strategy and directly calls on the murderer to admit guilt, saying that the mushrooms left by Haibara and Mitsuhiko points him out unequivocally. Since none of the hunters make a peep, Conan explains that the four mushrooms on the ground refer to the Detective Boys and Agasa, with the bigger hatsudake referring to Agasa. The other mushrooms then correspond to the hunters, and they are pierced by a tree branch from different angles to reflect the fact that the hunters carry their firearms in different fashions. Conan adds that following this line of thought, the person corresponding to the pierced-at-an-angle matsutake - the experienced and elderly Matasaburo Saika - must be the murderer. The accused still remains silent, which prompts Conan to continue talking. He surmises that the person killed is Yasaka’s friend, and that Saika shot in the direction of Haibara and Mitsuhiko not to kill them, but to…

Jubei suddenly appears before the group and interrupts Conan’s deduction. She stands up on two legs (making her taller than everyone), and lets out a threatening bellow. A terrified Negoro prepares to shoot, but Jubei acts first and violently slams his rifle aside. She then turns to Genta, but Saika comes to his rescue. He tells Genta to face the bear, stare into her eyes and retreat slowly such that Jubei does not deem him as prey, and fires a shot in the air to attract Jubei’s attention. He shouts directly at her and orders her to calm down and go back to the forest, since otherwise she will not be able to complete preparations for hibernation and caves suitable for this purpose will be occupied by other bears. Conan, who (somehow) is expecting all of this and senses Haibara and Mitsuhiko around, orders Haibara to release the bear cub immediately. She obeys, the youngster runs towards Jubei and the two bears leave in peace after licking each other for a while.

Now that there is no more threat from bears, Conan continues his deduction. He explains that Saika committed the murder because his to-be victim was a hunter trying to target Jubei, and he fired a shot in Haibara and Mitsuhiko’s direction because he wanted them to get away from a possibly anxious and unstable Jubei. Yasaka and Negoro think that this explanation is full of flaws, and they ask why someone would kill a hunter for doing his job and why Saika wants to protect Jubei, whom he personally injured twenty years ago, from harm. Upon hearing these questions, Saika, who has not uttered a word for a long time, finally opens up. He recollects that twenty years ago, he came to this forest to hunt bears, but instead suffered a serious accident that left him immobile and temporarily incapable of speech. Jubei found him in this state, and instead of eating him (which is what Saika thought she would do), she licked his open wounds for them to heal quicker and slept by his side to give him warmth. This allowed him to live long enough to be rescued by another hunter (who also shot Hubei in her left eye because he thought that Jubei was trying to kill Saika). Saika thus believed that Jubei saved his life, and in order to repay her he settled down around this forest and came here every day so that whenever he saw Jubei he could drive her into the deepest parts of the forest where there was less danger from hunters. Additionally, he spread rumors about the exceptional ferocity of Jubei in an effort to scare other hunters away; this plan, Saika says drily while eyeing Negoro, appears to have backfired.

After hearing this explanation, Negoro comments that it is ridiculous for a hunter to put animals before humans, and that he still feels bad for the deceased hunter. Saika replies that under normal circumstances he would not have interfered, as if a bear meets a hunter and is killed then that is his or her fate. He then says that what enraged him and caused him to step in was the hunter’s despicable tactic: specifically, he killed the other cub of Jubei, hanged him (or her) on a tree so that when Jubei came to the rescue, he could kill her in an ambush attack. The other hunters are shocked by this revelation, and soon the police arrive. Saika goes with them as he continues to look back at the forest in which his lifesaver resides.

The Detective Boys now are on their way back, and they ask Conan how he was able to figure out everything. He says that the tomb erected in the memory of the deceased young bear is key: if Saika killed the other hunter because he was jealous that he was able to find Jubei before him, the tomb would then make no sense. Conan also explains that he knows that the other bear cub was with Haibara and Mitsuhiko because of feces and small footprints near the onion chips, and that he knows that Jubei was around them because he noticed Ayumi’s strange behavior of looking back at the supposedly empty forest from time to time. Haibara remarks that it seems that Saika values the life of bears more than that of humans, and Mitsuhiko defends Saika by saying that Jubei is like an old friend of his. With Haibara disagreeing with this view and saying that Saika has caused trouble to others by protecting animals to this extent, the atmosphere inside the Beetle suddenly becomes serious and slightly awkward. But Ayumi quickly turns things around: she points out that the mother bear has reunited with the youngster and expresses her sincere hope that they will find somewhere suitable for hibernation, and the vehicle is filled with happiness again. Haibara looks on as her innocent and lively companions chat excitedly and smiles.

People

Kiyoshi Yasaka
	41 years old Hunter

Matasaburo Saika
	67 years old Hunter Former matagi

Tomoya Negoro
	28 years old Hunter

Jubei
	Female Asian black bear

Man
	Victim (gunshot) Hunter

Major events

• This is the case where we learn of Mitsuhiko's feelings for Haibara.
• Mitsuhiko shows off good skills, taking care of Haibara's injured leg. However, he feels sad because he believes he will never be as good as Conan, who had taught him originally how to take care of injuries.
• Mitsuhiko's self-esteem improves tremendously when Haibara gives him a good confidence boost.

Old Photograph Murder Case

Characters introduced

Shizuka Ikenami
	42 years old Kogoro's client

File 276 - The Client Full of Lies

A person sounding like a middle-aged woman calls Kogoro and expresses her wish to meet him. As Kogoro is watching a horse race and thinks that the caller must be an ugly woman wanting him to find her first love or do some other boring thing, he starts making up excuses, but Ran is (as usual) intolerant of Kogoro’s nonsense and tells him that he should be more dedicated to the job. The intense pressure from Ran means that Kogoro has no choice but to give in, and soon the caller comes. It turns out that despite being more than forty, the woman appears quite young, and she is additionally beautiful and elegant. As is typical of him in such situations, Kogoro changes into a handsome suit within seconds and greets his client cordially and more than slightly flirtatiously. This kind of behavior continues as the client (who is named Shizuka Ikenami) explains that she wants Kogoro to find a man named Shiro Shibata, who went to middle school with Shizuka and was a member of the kendo club just like her (and she wants Kogoro to find him because he is the possessor of a very precious photo of hers; to be precise, Shibata once lent Shizuka a novel, she inserted that photo into the novel as bookmark and forgot to remove it as she returned it to him). Kogoro’s obsession with Shizuka culminates when she mentions her single status, and Ran, who has already been interjecting their conversation with mentions that Kogoro is married to Eri, openly mocks Kogoro for abandoning Eri, whom she believes to be as glamorous as Shizuka.

Conan listens to the conversation from a different angle; he notes that Shizuka has told many unnecessary and trivial lies in her narration. For example, Shizuka claims that she knows nothing about cooking, but later (in Shibata’s house) is able to tell the species of fish served just by a glance of a dish of sashimi; similarly, she mentions that she is allergic to dust and has a sensitive trachea, but also that she is good at weaving.

After talking to Shizuka for a long time, both in the Agency and in the café Poirot downstairs, Kogoro concludes that there is not enough information to find Shibata or get in contact with him. Shizuka suggests Kogoro call Shinichi Kudo, who, according to her, is rumored to come to the Detective Agency sometimes. Conan, who worries that the Black Organization might have heard of this also, thinks that he should keep a lower profile in the future. Conan also suggests a way of finding Shibata that Kogoro has overlooked; the plan works out perfectly, and Shizuka, seeming to have noticed that Conan is a rather special and intelligent child, thanks him for his “crucial contributions”.

Conan, Ran, Kogoro and Shizuka head to Shibata’s apartment in Shizuoka Prefecture. When they arrive, they encounter a friend of Shibata (named Takezo Yoshikawa), who finds it strange when Kogoro tells him that nobody responded when they rang the bell. Yoshikawa thus takes Conan and company back to Shibata’s door; since it is open, the five visitors are able to enter without a key, and find a meal half-eaten, the television on and Shibata himself dead. He has been beaten on the forehead and clutches in his right hand a photo of Shizuka when she was young.

File 277 - The Evidence Held

Sango Yokomizo comes to investigate. After determining that Shibata likely died in or before the morning (it is night now), Yokomizo starts collecting the abili of the suspects, of which there are three: Shizuka (whom he initially thinks is Kogoro’s wife; this makes Kogoro honored and pleased, but Shizuka is quick to correct Yokomizo), Yoshikawa and Kyoko Shibata, who is Shiro’s wife and arrived home soon after the five visitors went into the apartment. After some questioning, Yokomizo and Kogoro determine that Kyoko has a perfectly valid alibi (according to a friend with whom Kyoko went golfing, she left the apartment at five in the morning and did not return until seven in the evening, which was approximately when Conan and company arrived) and that Yoshikawa’s is more problematic. However, for Yokomizo, the biggest suspect of all is Shizuka. He believes so because of several reasons. Firstly, Shizuka has confirmed that the photo that Shibata was clutching is the one that she is looking for and that the novel under Shibata’s belly is the one that he lent Shizuka in middle school. Secondly, Kyoko has said that she saw her husband search the bookshelf whilst on a call, and then took a book out, opened it and said “I have found it, I have found it”.

Kogoro objects to Yokomizo’s conclusion, remarking that such a beautiful woman cannot possibly be a murderer. Although Yokomizo holds Kogoro in very high regard, he still insists on taking Shizuka back to the police station for further questioning, but this ends up not happening because Shizuka argues that with the little amount of evidence in hand, Yokomizo will not be able to obtain an arrest warrant from a judge, and therefore cannot lawfully take her to the police station without her consent. Conan is stunned by her knowledge of the legal and judicial system, but decides to first solve the case and then worry about who she is. After examining the blood on Shibata’s left hand and some unknown mark in the palm of his right hand, he realizes who the murderer is and that this person had come into the apartment and left before his arrival. In the mean time, Yokomizo’s deputies find what they believe to be the murder weapon - a bokuto (i.e. a wooden sword used for training in kendo and related Japanese martial arts).

File 278 - The Horrifying Woman

  Show spoilers »

Conan tranquilizes Kogoro and begins his deduction. He gives reasons of why neither Shizuka nor Yoshikawa is the murderer; basically, if they were, then their subsequent actions would make no sense. The true murderer is therefore Kyoko. Conan says that Kyoko’s friend’s original words were “she returned at a bit over seven o’clock”, which is an ambiguous expression, and could mean, for instance, 7:05 or 7:10 (and everything in between). This leaves open the possibility that she actually arrived at her apartment before Conan and company instead of right after, which invalidates parts of her alibi. Conan proceeds to say that assuming that this conjecture is true, then the other part of the alibi (the one in the morning) does not stand either. It was established based on the assumption that Shibata was killed when having breakfast and reading a newspaper delivered to the household around six, but any meal, when accompanied by a newspaper coming in the morning, can misdirect people and make them think that the meal must be the breakfast. So it could be the case that the half-eaten meal prepared by Kyoko was her husband’s midnight snack (as, the night before, he had played mahjong with friends, including Yoshikawa, until three), and that the newspaper was placed beside the meal after Kyoko had come back from golfing (i.e. around seven o’clock in the evening and a short while before Conan and company’s arrival).

At this point Yoshikawa points to a piece of “evidence” that shows that Shibata was certainly alive at eight o’clock in the morning. Conan explains how that piece of evidence is flawed and how Kyoko can easily manipulate it. He then carries on by saying that placing the newspaper was not the only thing that Kyoko did in the short interval between her arrival and that of Conan and company. For example, she noticed that her husband had moved significantly from the spot where she struck him with the bokuto, and that his (bloody) wedding ring was not on the ring finger of his left hand, but instead in the clenched right hand’s palm (which is why there are unusual marks in the middle of the palm). Believing that this would incriminate her, Kyoko took the ring out of the clenched hand and tried to put it back in place, and when that did not work removed it altogether and placed Shizuka’s photo (which happened to be near) in the right palm in order to lay the blame on someone else and make the half-clenched hand seem natural. She also fastened bandages on the ring and pinky fingers of her husband’s left hand (Conan was able to imagine this scheme because the entire left hand was covered by blood except for the bandages, which were completely clean); on the ring finger because she wanted to cover the mark left by the ring, and on the pinky finger so that her mark-covering scheme would not be immediately obvious to others). Yokomizo orders subordinates to remove the bandages to check for marks, and its presence on the ring finger proves Conan’s conjecture.

Conan also guesses that Kyoko originally planned to call the police herself; unfortunately, during the struggle with her husband’s ring, the telephone rang, and Yoshikawa’s voice, which revealed that he was coming over (for more mahjong), resonated in the room. This forced Kyoko to flee the scene as soon as she could; Conan postulates that she hid in the stairway, where she decided to let Yoshikawa discover the body instead and return home after that pretending that she knew nothing about the murder.

Conan is now done with all the hypotheses and moves onto the incriminating evidence. He says that since disposing of the ring constituted a risky move and Kyoko had a good alibi, the safest thing to do was to keep it on herself and wait until the police leave; then she would have plenty of opportunities to go to a place far-away and throw away the ring there. Upon hearing this, Kyoko, who is already very nervous, involuntarily drops the blood-stained ring and thus indirectly admits that she has killed her husband. Her motive is simple: the couple’s life is being destroyed by Shibata’s addiction to mahjong. He gambled when playing, lost tremendous sums of money and became heavily indebted over time, for which he sold most valuable items that the couple owned, and planned to sell the few remaining ones as well, including Kyoko’s golf equipment and the present that his father-in-law had given him upon the couple’s marriage. Yokomizo, unmoved by this rather sad story, tells Kyoko that she must go with the police. She agrees, and enters her room under the pretence of changing, but is actually thinking of committing suicide with a katana. Conan senses that something is wrong and rushes towards the room; he opens the door, and to his horror, Kyoko has already placed the katana upon her neck, and demands that nobody approach her. Yokomizo tries to talk her out of killing herself, but to no avail; at this critical moment, Shizuka calmly steps into the room and produces a folding fan. Kyoko, desperate and not knowing what Shizuka would do to her, swings the katana violently but aimlessly through the air, allowing Shizuka to masterfully block it with her folding fan and halt its movements. Shizuka proceeds to swiftly disarm Kyoko; she then approaches her, looks into her eyes and asks whether she wants to commit murder again. A sobbing and confused Kyoko says that she only wants to claim her own life, and Shizuka sternly rebukes her by saying that every human life is precious, that none should be taken away like this and that taking one’s own life is nothing less than a homicide. She puts the katana into its scabbard, turns away from a stunned and speechless Kyoko and to an awestruck Yokomizo and tells him joyfully that she should go with him to the police station as a person relevant to a case.

Yokomizo agrees, but Conan (still using Kogoro’s voice) asks her to wait for a moment, as he wants to know why she lied repeatedly while in the Detective Agency (and the café). Conan points out that apart from the untruths about her culinary skills and about her trachea, she lied when she said (in café Poirot, when ordering drinks) that the novel Shibata had lent her has a character named “Reiko” in it. Before she has a chance to respond, Heiji and Kazuha appear at the door (to the surprise of Ran and the shock of Conan), and the former explains that “Reikō” (冷コー, which sounds very similar to “Reiko”, a Japanese female given name) is the term that Osakans use to refer to ice coffee, and Shizuka, well aware that this usage might give her origins away, had to invent a story on the spot. Heiji also calls Shizuka “obasan”. Kogoro, who happens to wake up at this moment, confronts Heiji over this term, lecturing him on how his inappropriate use of “obasan” is disrespectful towards Shizuka. The latter is unfazed by Kogoro’s lambast, as “she is my mother”. Conan, Ran and Kogoro are all astounded and dumbfounded by this revelation, and Ran, in a move that breaks significantly from her usual character, points at Shizuka and shouts “but her skin color is so pale (and yours so dark)!” Heiji is deeply upset by this comment and yells that he has inherited his skin tone from his grandfather.

Now that the case is solved, everybody leaves Shibata’s apartment, goes downstairs and starts chatting on the patio in front of the apartment building. Shizuka reveals that she suspected that Kogoro was a cruel and unreasonable man who treated Heiji like a servant, the rationale being that every time that Heiji came to Tokyo and worked with Kogoro he got hurt, and that during Kogoro’s visit of Osaka he did not even bother to visit the Hattori’s. To confirm her fears, she came to the Agency as a normal client to test Kogoro’s character (after calling Shibata and getting him to collaborate), using her surname before marrying Heizo Hattori to introduce herself. Her conclusion, to the delight of Kogoro, is that he is the opposite of what she had in mind: a capable, intelligent and kind man who wrapped up the case quickly and saw right through her lies. Shizuka Hattori also says that she is happy to finally have the photo back, but her son thinks to himself that that is another lie, as Shizuka has previously said that she did not want a photo depicting her crying after losing a kendo match to a younger girl (Shizuka does not mention this, but she is actually Michiko Kurogane; Michiko also appears in the photo; she is the blonde girl in the back).

This file ends with Shizuka telling Kogoro that his good nature means that she can entrust Heiji and Kazuha to him with no fear; Kogoro does not know what she is talking about. Meanwhile, Ran wonders why Heiji and Kazuha are carrying luggages with them.

People

Shiro Shibata
	Victim (beaten) 42 years old Physical education teacher

Takezo Yoshikawa
	47 years old Shiro Shibata's friend

Kyoko Shibata
	38 years old Shiro Shibata's wife

Major events

Conan is quite shocked to learn about how young Heiji's mother looks!

Mermaid's Curse Case

Shiho Miyano's name is in a guestbook logging past contestants for the immortality arrows.

File 279 - The Mermaid's Curse?

Heiji invites Conan, Ran and Kogoro to join him and Kazuha on a case he got a letter about. The letter is from a woman named Saori, who lives on a tiny island off Wakasa Bay in Fukui Prefecture, known as the Island of Mermaids. It is famous due to it's elder who is over 100-year-old and rumored to be immortal. Apparently Saori is afraid of getting killed by mermaids. Conan isn't pleased with being dragged in this case, but Heiji reveals to him that while the letter was sent to his address, it was meant for Shinichi. After arriving on the island, the group learns that Saori has disappeared three days ago. No one worries because it's not unusual for Saori to leave home when she has had a fight with her father. They meet four of Saori's childhood friend, Naoko, a shop clerk, Toshimi and her fiancé Rokuro, and Kimie, a shrine maiden who is also the great-granddaughter of the elder. Each year there is a festival on the island where the elder awards three winners with a dungong arrow, that wields protection for it's bearer. Saori won one last year, but lost it last week, and up to her disappearance, she had become fearful of being cursed of mermaids. Kimie reveals that last time she saw Saori was three days ago. Kimie needed to go the dentist on the coast, and Saori went with her. She promise the group to take them to Saori's house after the festival, and offers Ran and Kazuha each a ticket to the lottery for the Dungong Arrow. She had two left after a couple cancelled. During the festival the Elder reveals the winning numbers, and Kazuha's number is one of the three. Later at the mermaid waterfall, Kazuha and the two other winners, Naoko and Saori's father, receives their arrows, but as the firework is shoot up, the audience sees a body hanging in the waterfall.

File 280 - The Elder's Prophecy

The body is Toshimi. The cause of death was hanging. It is uncertain to determent if it was an accident or a murder, but Heiji asks what she would be doing in the forest instead of attending the festival at the waterfall. Naoko suggests that she was looking for a grave of a mermaid. Three years ago after the festival, a warehouse near the shrine was burned to the ground and a body was found in the remains. The body is buried in the forest. Kimie recalls that Toshimi often spoke of that grave. Skeptical Heiji asks if it really was a mermaid's body. Kimie says that the locals thinks so, but the police determined that the body was of a middle aged woman. Naoko and Rokuro futher tells that the body didn't have any legs, and that is the reason behind the idea that it was a mermaid. It gained a lot of attention and the Elder became famous. Kimie tells that the police concluded that it might have been a tourist who was searching for an extra arrow and accidently set the warehouse on fire. It was never discovered who it was and the bones were buried on the island, but later moved to a secret spot in the forest on orders from the Elder after tourists had been trying to steal bones from the grave, since it is said that a bone from a mermaid gives long life.

Rokuro doesn't appear to grieve much over the death of his fiancée, since the engagement was arranged by their parents. After moving Toshimi's body from the forest, the group decides to ask the Elder how she picks the winning number for the contest. But the Elder claims that it's just random picking. The Elder then warns Kazuha that if she loses her arrow, bad fortune will follow her. The next day there is hold a wave for Toshimi at her family's home, but then Naoko is found dead outside the house, strangled by fishing net.

File 281 - The Devil's Arrow

Naoko's crime scene is set up to make it appear she was murdered by a mermaid. And her Dugong Arrow is missing. The police arrives from the coast and takes over the investigation. Conan and Heiji discuss the case. The two victims and the missing Saori has one thing in common. They all three believe that the Elder was immortal and in the power of the arrow. They then decides to check the book that holds the list of the contestants in the lottery and their numbers. Kimie takes them home to herself, but the recent one has gone missing. She denies that the Elder should have taken it and decides to search the other rooms. While they wait Heiji and Conan takes a look at the older books. Heiji is amazed by the names of the high ranked people, but Conan finds a familiar name - Shiho Miyano. He recalls that it was Haibara's real name, but doubts it's her, because she doesn't appear to the type who want immortality. But then Ran and Kazuha screams up, they have seen a figure outside that is similar to the missing Saori. After that the new warehouse has caught fire and is burned down, and like three years ago a body is found inside.

After noticing that Kimie is nowhere to be found, they contacts the dentist she visited, and he confirmed that the body's teeth matches Kimie's. Rokuro breaks down mourning over Kimie's death.

File 282 - The Last Arrow

The Elder takes to the bed after learns of her great-granddaughter's death. The locals begins to talk about ending the festival, since Kimie now was dead. Then Ran answer a strange phone call to the shrine. Someone wants to say thanks to a man, apparently working for the shrine, who sold an arrow a million yen. Kazuha and Ran guess that it might be the couple, which lottery numbers they took over. From the description Ran has been given, Heiji and Conan realize that it's Benzo, Saori's father.

File 283 - Uncompensated Heart

  Show spoilers »

Heiji and Kazuha fell but Heiji managed to grasp Kazuha's hand all the while grabbing a cracking branch on the cliff. Fearing Heiji might die as the branch is about to break, and asking him to live in order to fulfil the arrow she won, she stabs Heiji's hand with the arrow's point to force him to let go of her. But Heiji holds his grip and tells Kazuha that if she moves just one finger again, he'll kill her. They eventually manage to climb back up and head back to the village.

Meanwhile, Conan starts his Kogoro deduction show by pointing at the fact that only one person had no alibi at all for the three murders, which is obvious as that person chose and knew who would win the arrows, and is generally above suspicion : Mikoto Shimabukuro. Nobody believes that theory at all : why would Mikoto murder Kimie, her great-granddaughter ? But Conan asks what if Kimie wasn't the one burned alive. Kimie and Saori went to the dentist together. It was Saori, who was being treated, but her insurance card went missing, so she had no choice but to borrow Kimie's and be treated in her name. So the corpse's dental print wouldn't be Kimie's one but Saori's one. The dentist has already confirmed that the Kimie he treated matched Saori's description. Kimie, brilliant at make-up art, has actually disguised as Mikoto for a long time, granting her the perfect cover to kill the three girls. Kimie reveals her true identity and confesses she is indeed the murderer, and disguised as Mikoto just as her mother did before dying in the warehouse blaze some time ago. The mother's corpse then got its legs crushed by a falling beam, explaining her mermaid-like corpse. Kimie reveals she had indeed prepared an audio record to imitate her own voice calling Mikoto for the bath in order to dismiss any doubts.

She wanted to avenge her mother's death, killed in a fire set by drunk Toshimi, Naoko and Saori who revenged for not winning the arrows and to test Mikoto's rumored immortality. Mikoto's 'survival' explains the girls' belief in her immortality and the existence of mermaid. Kimie resumed Mikoto's role after her mother called her, encircled by fire. She had asked her to continue the 'Elder's' life for the island's sake. After Saori lost her arrow, she became desperate and asked Kimie for a new one or the location of the mermaid's tomb in order to be immortal, just like Mikoto, who 'survived' the fire, thus revealing unknowingly her murder and showing her lack of compassion and regret. Since Naoko and Toshimi both were convinced of the Elder's immortality, Kimie likely guessed that they too had been involved. Heiji turns up at that moment and tells Kimie the village's elders knew about Mikoto's true identities, but concealed it in order to keep attracting tourits to Bikuni Island and to leave Kimie resuming the role. They all apologise to Kimie who bursts into tears, Heiji adding that eternal life is a pipe dream, it is precisely because life is short and precious that we should fight for her and not to try to stop the flow of time.

After the case, the group meets Takayoshi Tsujimura and Yukiko Katsuragi from the "Diplomat Murder Case" (Vol. 10), and Yukiko tells Heiji she is the one who sent him a letter with an address to Shinichi in the header, as she wanted her friend Saori to get some help from the two great detectives who had solved the murder of her father-in-law. Heiji pretends to Ran the injury Kazuha made to him is almost invisible, and Kazuha almost regrets it. Conan looks down on Heiji as he sees his other hand, the badly injured one, in his pocket. Heiji thinks about how he'll never let Kazuha die.

People

Naoko Kuroe
	Victim (strangled) 28 years old Souvenir shop clerk

Kimie Shimabukuro
	Victim (burned) 27 years old Bikuni Shrine maiden

Saori Kadowaki
	27 years old Benzou's daughter Missing

Toshimi Ebihara
	Victim (hanged) 27 years old Daughter of the head of the fishing union

Rokuro Fukuyama
	28 years old Fisherman

Mikoto Shimabukuro
	130 years old Elder Birthday: June 24th, 1869

Benzo Kadowaki
	52 years old Saori's father Fisherman

Major events

• While looking in the past visitor registry, Conan finds the name "Shiho Miyano" but he doubts that this was Haibara.
• Kazuha gets embarrassed when the subject of her feelings for Heiji comes up during her conversation with Ran.
• Heiji and Kazuha are found stuck on a cliff, and Kazuha is barely hanging on to Heiji to survive.
• Kazuha takes the arrow that she won in the contest, and stabs Heiji with it, hoping that he'll let go of her so that she can fall off, saying "I pass my long life onto you." However, Heiji refuses to let go, even when the gash gets incredibly bloody. He helps her back up, and helps her to the elder's hut, promising that he will never let anyone hurt her while he is with her.

Girl Clubbing Case

Characters introduced

Midori Megure
	Inspector Megure's wife

File 284 - The Buried Secret

A serial killer targets tan blond-haired "ganguro-style" girls and bludgeons them. Kogoro is mistaken for the killer and the police has to explain him the case. Meanwhile, Ran discovers the corpse of a ganguro girl beaten to death in the Haido General Store parking lot. The victim, Tae Aizawa, is the first killer's victim to be killed. As the grieving victim's boyfriend tells police they're useless, Megure is reminded of an old and painful case.

People

Ryoko Mizutani
	Victim (beaten-injured)

Hitomi Endo
	Victim (beaten-injured)

Michiko Ishiguro
	Victim (beaten-injured)

Tae Aizawa
	Victim (beaten) 20 years old Former Haido Department Store clerk

Noriyuki Shirakawa
	24 years old Chef

Yuri Konno
	24 years old Waitress

Yoshio Sadakane
	43 years old Security guard

Haruyoshi Shirakawa
	53 years old Haido Department Store owner

Akira Sakurai
	Deceased

Cover in other countries

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  China
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  Finland
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  France
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  Germany
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  Hong Kong
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  Indonesia
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  Italy
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  Korea
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  Malaysia (Chinese)
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  Malaysia (Malay)
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  Norway
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  Rep. of China (Taiwan)
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  Spain (Spanish, Volumen 2)
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  Spain (Spanish, Volumen 2)
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  Sweden
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  Thailand
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  United States
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  Vietnam

Trivia

• Shiho Miyano's name is listed among contestants in the Dungong's arrow festival. Conan noticed this, but doubts that it is her.

See also

• Manga
• Volume 21-30
• Detective Conan