Volume 45

Volume 45
Information
Release date:	April 5, 2004
Chapters:	458-468
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-126413-1
Publisher:	Shogakukan
English release date:	January 8, 2013
English ISBN:	ISBN 1-4215-3611-0
English Publisher:	Viz Media
Featured Detective & Keyhole
Eitaro Imanishi Kazumi Tsukamoto
Aoyama's death & Conan side images
Chronology
Prev volume:	« Volume 44
Next volume:	Volume 46 »
List of chapters • List of cases

Volume 45 was released on April 5, 2004 in Japan.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Sonoko Suzuki Tomoaki Araide Kazumi Tsukamoto Jodie Starling Hiroshi Agasa Ai Haibara Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Jugo Yokomizo Eri Kisaki (background) Heiji Hattori (background) Vermouth (background) Hirofumi Kogure (on TV)

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Chapters

Classmate's Ghost Case

File 458 - Where are the Footprints!?

Conan reports his findings to Sonoko and Ran and they panic. Their conversation is overheard by Monobe, who also starts to panic and even scream, but eventually is able to calm down and orders the investigators to leave him alone. Conan discovers the presence of wax on the site where the water under the stairs accumulated and, in the library, the investigators find that all the books that Hosaka borrowed were obscure and seldomly borrowed by anyone else, if at all; Tsukamoto says that that is because Hosaka wanted to be a manga artist, and knowing unusual things would help him write interesting stories.

Tsukamoto advises the investigators to talk to the headmaster, as he has a long-standing habit of standing in the yard (pondering what he should plant in it) and thus might have seen the person moving Hosaka’s desk and chair out. But the headmaster says that he did not go out that day because of a staff meeting. The investigators then head to the nursery, but Seko insists that he has seen nothing because the nursery is on the first floor, and trees prevent him from even seeing the yard. However, he does reveal that Hosaka and he were childhood friends, that he did not know about Hosaka’s death until months after the tragedy because of a hospitalization, and that the person in charge of the nursery would not be with him for the whole afternoon. Conan remains stuck and believes that all three third-years that they have met can be the prankster, until Ran calls his attention to some traces of water droplets in the hallway of the first floor. He then has a theory of what happens, and strange traces on the ground of the yard and the fact that water accumulates under Seko’s umbrella seem to support it. Now he is now prepared to make a full deduction.

File 459 - Truth Behind the Remaining Desk

  Show spoilers »

Conan gathers everyone in the arts room, tranquilizes Sonoko and begins the deduction. It turns out that the desk and chair were taken out to the yard when it was raining, and that footprints are missing because the rain was so heavy that it quickly deformed them. The piece of paper was dry because an umbrella was covering it, and the umbrella had long, thin ropes attached to it, which allowed the culprit to quickly retrieve it after the rain without the need of stepping in the yard. The strange traces on the ground are evidence of someone dragging the umbrella, and the water droplets in the hallway are there because the culprit attempted to dry his umbrella by shaking it. But since this does not completely dry the umbrella, water will accumulate under it over time. The culprit is therefore Kunishige Seko. Araide asks how Seko can prevent people from getting suspicious by seeing an umbrella in the yard, and Conan replies that the view is blocked by trees on the first floor and that on higher floors people would think that the headmaster is carrying out his tradition again. Also, since Seko knew that he would be alone in the nursery for the whole afternoon, he could enter and leave it freely.

Conan further explains that the first haunting event happened because Seko was in the storage room at the time. The second happened because Seko and Hosaka were childhood friends, and therefore Seko would know what Hosaka was interested in and could easily find books that he read despite their obscurity. And the third happened because Seko hid ice in the fire extinguisher embedded in the wall beside the stairs so that it could melt during the night to form a small pond of water the next morning. The wax there was placed against the wall to form a ramp, which would prevent the water flowing downwards from being too near to the wall (because of this, people overlooked the possibility that there might be a connection between the water and the fire extinguisher).

Seko admits that he was behind all of these events and exclaims that he did so because he believes that Hosaka was bullied and died because somebody pushed him off the stairs, and that creating rumors about ghosts haunting the school will frighten the bully and enable Seko to find out his/her identity. Monobe rejects Seko’s inferences and says that Hosaka was not bullied to death, and that if anyone were to be blamed it would be him. He explains that one day, when trying to carry heavy sculptures into the arts room, he fell down from the stairs, and Hosaka, who was behind him, was unfortunately crushed by Monobe’s body and the sculpture to death.

Seko is unwilling to believe any of this, and retorts by questioning why Hosaka’s desk and chair are left in the lightless storage room. Tsukamoto, who was in the same class as Hosaka, explains that it was to preserve his belongings despite him being gone. She says that her classmates unanimously agreed to not give the desk and chair to someone else so that on graduation day, they can bring them out and place them with the desks and chairs of everyone else, making it seem like Hosaka has always been with them and will graduate together with them. Their teacher initially was reluctant to put the perfectly functional desk and chair into disuse, but consented to storing them in the storage room after her classmates raised enough money to buy a new desk and chair. Araide intervenes by saying that he was the doctor who first arrived after Hosaka’s serious injury, and that he heard Hosaka joke about the accident. These words abate Seko’s fury, clear up his previous misunderstandings and make Monobe feel a bit better about the accident. Araide later admits that what he said is a white lie.

The truth is thus out and Conan and company leave the school. After parting from Conan and the highschoolers, Araide receives a phone call from Jodie. Jodie asks him about his re-integration into Teitan High School, and Araide says that it has been quite good thanks to her briefing on Vermouth’s actions. Jodie then tells him to forget about the FBI, and that they will not be in contact in the future. Araide asks whether Vermouth is really a very bad person, as multiple students and staff members held the impersonated Dr. Araide’s personality and medical knowledge in high regard. Jodie sharply rebukes Araide by using an insult and roaring that nobody who keeps smiling as he/she kills someone can be good; then she hangs up. Jodie then thinks to herself that Vermouth has the frightening ability to imitate even the personality of her target, and that Araide is too kind and good-natured.

People

Hideaki Hosaka
	Deceased Former Art Club member

Tashiro
	17 years old Friend of Ran

Hidaka
	17 years old Friend of Ran

Eisuke Aizawa
	17 years old Soccer player

Nakamichi
	17 years old Soccer player

Kazumi Tsukamoto
	18 years old Captain of Karate Third year student at Teitan High Classmate of Hideaki Hosaka

Kunishige Seko
	18 years old Table tennis player Third year student at Teitan High Childhood friend of Hideaki Hosaka

Masao Monobe
	18 years old Third year student at Teitan High Arts Club member with the late Hideaki Hosaka

Principal
	Principal of Teitan High School

Poisoned Fisherman Case

Characters introduced

Futoshi Ejiri
	41 years old Fishing enthusiast

Iwao Ida
	39 years old Fisherman

File 461 - Poison on the Bait!?

Agasa has a birthday.

File 462 - The Blessed Fishing Spot

  Show spoilers »

The culprit is Mineto Kanetani.

At the end of the case it is revealed that it is Agasa's Birthday. Since he starts the series at age 52, he is now 53.

People

Kiriko Shirane
	38 years old Fishing enthusiast Futoshi's ex-wife

Mineto Kanetani
	39 years old Fishing enthusiast

Futoshi Ejiri
	Victim (poison - injured) 41 years old Fishing enthusiast Kiriko's ex-husband

Iwao Ida
	39 years old Fisherman

Baseball Player Case

File 465 - A Back-Street in the Sky

  Show spoilers »

The culprit is Masaharu Motoyama.

People

Toshizo Nose
	Victim (stabbed) Professional baseball player

Masaharu Motoyama
	Sports reporter

Inspector Tokashiki
	Okinawa Police inspector

Officer Inabu
	Okinawa Police detective Inspector Tokashiki's assistant

Cigarette Message Case

People

Etsuko Nonomiya
	28 years old Inn guest

Ryoji Amatsuchi
	34 years old Pension owner

Hajime Futagawa
	Victim (fell) 35 years old Inn guest

Heihachi Mikami
	43 years old Inn guest

Asao Kono
	Deceased (fell) Etsuko's boyfriend

Cover in other countries

• 

  China
• 

  Finland
• 

  France
• 

  Germany
• 

  Hong Kong
• 

  Indonesia
• 

  Italy
• 

  Korea
• 

  Malaysia (Chinese)
• 

  Malaysia (Malay)
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  Rep. of China (Taiwan)
• 

  Spain (Spanish, Volumen 2)
• 

  Sweden
• 

  Thailand
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  United States
• 

  Vietnam

See also

• Manga
• Volume 41-50
• Detective Conan