Detective Conan 721

File 721
The Kappa's True Form
Caption: Could it be...!?

2
Sidetext: Conan solves the puzzle of the drowning death trick....
Yama: Anyway...

Yama: Since Ran-san witnessed this figure of an unknown alien life form...
The culprit has to be none other than him...

Yama: For that reason, as an ultra classified X File, this case will be deposited in the deepest part of the Gunma Police headquarters...
Where it'll never again see the light of day...

Mouri: What, you mean it's going to go unsolved?
Conan: Geesh, it's not that kind of file...

Ran: B-but, why did the alien have to kill the ryokan owner, Banzou-san!?
Conan: Oh boy...
Yama: Didn't you hear what I said before about Banzou-san always using binoculars to watch over the river bank from the attic!!

Yama: Banzou-san must have seen the swarm of aliens swimming around in the river like kappas!!
And because the aliens thought they'd been no-

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Yama: -ticed !?

Yama: Heh, heh...

Conan:　This time it'll be better if I put this hack to sleep...

Mouri: Hey, Yamamura?
Ran: Just like Dad, the Sleeping Kogorou...
It can't be the kappa's curse, can it?

Conan: Yes, the kappa...after that name was mentioned the truth of this case suddenly dawned on me!!
Ran: He uses the same disjointed logic, too!
Mouri: Eh? Am I like that?

Conan: Alright! Please call the 2 remaining suspects here! I will be explaining the truth behind this case!
I'm staking my reputation as the Kunma Prefecture Division 1 Police Inspector on it!!

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Nohira: Huh?

Nohira: You figured out the culprit?

Nohira: And you gathered us together...
Araiwa: Because one of us is the killer?

Tokubi: But we were cleared after searching our rooms a little while ago...
Isn't that right, Yamamura?

Mouri: The key point to this case...
is the odor...

Mouri: Of the water from that pond 10 km ahead which was used to drown the ryokan owner, Numayama Banzou, in the attic!
The amount of water placed in the bucket and used to drown him was approximately 1 liter...
Which means the culprit placed the smelly water in some kind of container and brought it here...

Mouri: Tokubi-san's colored ink bottles are all almost completely full...
In fact, he was using that ink to draw a picture...

Mouri: Araiwa-san had 2 500ml plastic bottles and a water pillow in his bag...
But the bottle that was opened was still half full...and the water pillow was empty at the time he entered the ryokan...It was impossible for the two of them to bring in a liter of water...

Mouri: Now, Nohira-san, as a reportage writer possesses numerous film canisters...
However at the time of the crime, between 6 and 7am, he had a perfect alibi, being in a telephone conversation with his editorial committee the entire time...

Mouri: ...So you mean one of those 3 is the culprit?
Conan: Don't you think it's strange?

Conan: Aside from Nohira-san's alibi...
If it weren't for everyone knowing beforehand what was in their luggage, Tokubi-san and Araiwa-san wouldn't have had suspicions diverted from them...

Conan: The water could have been placed in a paper bag or balloon...
And then afterwards when they had been emptied they could be cut up and flushed down the toilet...
Mouri: That's true...

Conan: But we were able to know what was in your baggage beforehand...
Why is that?

Conan: It was so that you, Tokubi-san could slip and fall into the stream、
announce that you'll check your baggage, and then open it up for everyone to see!　To arrange the murderer's trick!

Ran: You, you can't mean...
Araiwa: To-Tokubi-sensei is the murderer!?

Conan: Yes...which is why Tokubi-san sent Mouri-san the letter asking him to come here using that mysterious name,
waylayed Mouri-san's car on the road to the ryokan, and then got in the car him...

Conan: Before going to the ryokan he told them about Banzou-san's son's altar by the riverbed...
So he could suddenly fall into the river!

Conan: Naturally, he wanted suspicion to also be diverted from Araiwan-san, his former student visiting the altar, so he dragged him into the river as well...
Ran: But...who told you about the letter delivered to us?

Conan: I told him about it!
About how some strange person with the rearranged name of "Kappa" summoned us here to the ryokan!

Araiwa: But Sensei was only carrying these small color ink bottles!!
Where would he be able to also put one liter of water?

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Conan: 9 60ml bottles, 16 15ml bottles, and 1 100ml wash bottle can hold 800ml...
If they were each filled to the brim they would hold about 1 liter altogether...enough to to put into a bucket and drown someone...

Ran: Bu-but, wasn't Tokubi-san sketching a picture with the colored ink?
He used various colors...and the bottles he didn't use, the colors perfectly matched the labels.

Conan: He didn't use...
the wash bottle, did he?

Conan: Look...the wash bottle is there rolling around empty!

Conan: Normally, water is used to dilute the colored ink...
It's too concentrated otherwise...If used at full concentration such a small bottle would be immediately used up...

Conan: Yet, Tokubi-san sketched that faint drawing without adding a single drop of water...
Because the undiluted ink...

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Conan: was placed only into the dropper...
And he used tap water to dilute it after the crime!

Ran: T-tap water?
Mouri: I see...He sucked up the ink in the dropper and left the bottle empty...He then filled that empty space with water from the pond...

Mouri: After using that water for the crime...he filled the bottleｓ with tap water and then mixed in the undiluted ink from the dropper, giving it its color...
At first glance it would look like colored ink!

Conan: Yes...of course before the crime he'd have covered up the dropper with tape or something...
To prevent the ink from mixing with the pond water...

Conan: The proof is that when he fell in the river and checked his belongings...
Tokubi-san didn't remove the ink bottles from their case...

Conan: Had he done that, it would have been revealed that there was the smelly pond water inside and not fresh ink...
Mouri: Hmph..fool...you probably wouldn't have been found out if you hadn't drawn that picture...

Conan: It wasn't necessary for him to draw one...
Mouri: Huh?

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Conan: It's almost impossible to carefully clean so many bottles in a short time after the crime...
There should be traces of the pond water remaining in the diluted ink...

Conan: That's why he took the chance to use it to sketch a picture...
To impress upon us that the contents of the bottle were really colored ink...

Conan: Well, we'll soon know the results if I ask forensics to examine the ink's components...
Araiwa: No way!!
Sensei can't be the culprit!!

Araiwa: In these 11 years Sensei has never missed visiting Tatsuhiko's altar by the river where he was swept to his death!!
Even after quitting his job as a teacher!

Araiwa: Why would he have to kill Tatsuhiko's father!?
Tokubi: Because he was his father...

Araiwa: Eh?
Tokubi: Because he was Tatsuhiko-kun's father...
And that was too much for me to be able to forgive...

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Tokubi: It was his fault that Tatsuhiko-kun was swept down that river to his death...
What he did was the same as murder!!

Araiwa: Se-sensei...
Tokubi: After school on the day before Tatsuhiko-kun was swept to his death,
I saw him in the drawing room...

Tokubi: It was dim and Tasuhiko-kun was desperately searching for paints left behind by the students...
I thought that he must really want to draw　pictures, so I presented him with a brand new set of them...

Tokubi: A few days after Tatsuhiko-kun was swept away, that man returned them to me...
It appeared none of the colors had been used so I though he hadn't drawn any pictures with them...I kept those colors and never used them in memory of Tatsuhiko-kun...

Tokubi: But a few days ago I noticed something...
Something strange about the colors...
Mouri: Strange?

Tokubi: Only the green color was switched with those of a different brand!!

Ran: Wh-why only the color green...
I confirmed it by digging up the altar erected by Tatsuhiko-kun's classmates at the riverside and examining the shoe he was wearing at the time...

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Tokubi: There were remants of green paint on the inside of the shoe in the toe area...
Meaning that on the day he was swept away, Tatsuhiko-kun's entire body was painted green!!

Ran: H-his whole body was green?
Mouri: Hey, that can't be...
Tokubi: Yes, it's true...

Tokubi: Because Tatsuhiko-kun was ordered by his father to dress up as a kappa and wander around the river!!
To attract customers to the ryokan!! And during a cold time like the end of January no less!!

Ran: You're kidding...
Nohira: So, those eyewitness testimonies of the kappa from before he was swept away were...
Tokubi: Probably Tatsuhiko-kun, dressed as a kappa by that man's orders...

Tokubi: The reason he took one of the shoes from Tatsuhiko-kun's body as it was floating on the pond and hid it against his chest...
And the reason why he replaced the green color and returned it to me...all of it was to destroy the evidence!!

Tokubi: That's why he was always on the lookout from the attic with his binoculars!!
So that nobody would dig up the other shoe from the altar!!
Conan: That's not correct...

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Conan: I believe Tatsuhiko-kun dressed himself up as a kappa!
For the sake of his father's ryokan without his knowing it!

Tokubi: Haha, what are you saying, boy...
Conan: I mean...if he were secretly getting his son to do those things he would send him to go buy the paints! Searching desperately for paints where anyone could see him might expose the whole scheme...

Conan: They even sell the colors individually...
It wouldn't be strange for a kid to be buying paints!
Tokubi: Then why did he take the shoe from his body!?

Conan: Maybe for the sake of Tatsuhiko himself?

Conan: Because they would know from them that he was dressed as a kappa and would laugh at him...
What's more, I think if it were such awful evidence he would have disposed of it long ago and not walked around holding it to his chest...

Conan: Isn't that right, Araiwa-niisan?
Araiwa: Eh?

Conan: I mean, when you heard Ran-neechan talking about seeing the kappa, didn't you say "maybe it's a ghost?"
Didn't you know Tatsuhiko-kun dressed up as a kappa?

Araiwa: The truth is that...on the day Tatsuhiko was swept down the river...
I was with him...
Ran: What!?

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Araiwa: Around that time...rumors were spreading that since the kappa never appeared when it was cold that somebody must have been pretending...
And had things kept on as they were then Tatsuhiko would have been found out...Tatsuhiko said that he'd just do it when it was a cold day...

Araiwa: I told him not to because it was raining...
Tatsuhiko: It's still raining lightly so it's fine!
Tell the ryokan guests that the kappa's appeared and bring them back!

Araiwa: But while I was headed to the ryokan the rain started falling harder, so I went back and told myself I had to stop him...Tatsuhiko's foot was caught between the rocks on the river bed and couldn't move...I quickly went to call Tatsuhiko's father, but when we made it back...

Araiwa: There was already no sign of Tatsuhiko...
Mouri: So you two searched around and found him floating on the pond downstream...

Araiwa: Yeah...As Banzou-san removed Tatsuhiko's shoe with the green paint on it he said...
"Please don't tell anyone that Tatsuhiko was pretending to be the kappa...
Tatsuhiko would be sad if another fool copied him and experienced the same fate..."

Mouri: I see...That's why he always stood watch over the river...
So nobody else would get swept away...so that nobody else would play at being the kappa...

Tokubi: That..that can't...
That can't be...
Nohira: But...what about the rumors of the old man wandering around the area of the altar night after night?
Conan: Perhaps...

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Conan: He was secretly repairing the altar that he destroyed in front of Tatsuhiko's friends in order to dissuade them from approaching the river...
It was just an altar made by piling rocks on top of each other, but he wouldn't change that precious altar made by Tatsuhiko's friends for him...

Box： As if working in conjunction with Tokubi's cries as he was taken away in the police car...
The sorrowful color of the sunset completely blanketed the sky...

Mouri:　I'm impressed, Yamamura! You've become quite the inspector, haven't you?
Yama: Haha...
I have no idea what he means...

Yama: Well, it appears the case is solved...how about we go out and celebrate with some drinks?
Mouri: OK!
Ran: Wait...

Ran: What a minute!!
We haven't solved the mystery of this kappa I saw...

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Yama: How can you say it still hasn't been solved...
Mouri: You don't feel well...
Ran: I really, really did see it!

Conan: Maybe it's because Ran-neechan was so frightened that she saw something like that...
Ran: What? You're talking to me as if i were a child even though you're one yourself...

Conan: Eh?

Conan: Ka...
Kappa!?

Yama: It's appeared!!
Mouri: Hey, Ran! Do your karate or something!!
Ran: Huh!!

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Nohira: Hm?
Mouri: Y-You!?
The kappa is really you!!
Nohira: Eh?

Nohira: Ah...Last night I thought to take some pictures around the area of the altar...
When you guys came along it surprised me and my feet slipped into the river!
When your daughter started clamoring about the kappa, had I mentioned that awkward moment you would have pegged me as the culprit, so I kept quiet...
Yama: But in this sketch the body is more slender and the stomach is sticking out. And it appears there's hair coming out from under the shell...

Conan: The reason he was more slender is that the damp clothes clung closely his body, and the stomach was sticking out because there was something inside of there, right?
Nohira: Yeah...photo supplies...

Ran: Then, then...what about the hair underneath the shell?
Nohira: I occasionally play survival games, so I attach leaves around my body for camoflage...

Mouri: Idiot!!
Conan: Well, it's all solved...

Sidetext: This is most surely the actual ghost they saw...