Episode 126: The Traveling Drama Troupe Murder Case (Part 1)
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| The class crowds around the new transfer student, Tamanosuke. |
Scenario: Tamanosuke is seen wandering around Tetsuo’s murder scene and is found attacked by Conan and Megumi. The troupe’s treasurer, Itoe Ogiwara, is found at the bottom of the stage basement, dead with a letter apparently calling her out in her hand. At the hospital, the killer, now believed to be the real Edo Boy, attempts to finish off a recovering Tamanosuke, but fails. Conan finally discover the truth, and tranquilizes Richard, revealing that Tamanosuke knew Edo Boy killed Tetsuo because he was being blackmailed but didn’t know who Edo Boy actually was. Ogiwara, believing her money laundering had been discovered, was killed due to a misunderstanding of the letter which was meant to call Edo Boy out and meet with Tamanosuke. Kenzo Tajima is revealed to be Edo Boy and, in turn, the killer. As evidence, his fingerprints are on Tatsuo’s keyboard when he deleted the files from the computer. Kenzo apologizes to the cast and staff and is arrested for the murders.
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| The Detective Boys smirk at the idea of doing what they're told. |
Later, at the Mouri Detective Agency, Ran and Sonoko meet up with the Detective Boys while planning how to hand out fliers. When Conan and the Detective Boys ask to go as well, Sonoko tells them to wait until the performance. When the door closes, all four children simply smirk at the idea of listening to what they were told to do. After arriving at the theatre, Sonoko decides to go in the front door, despite being told earlier to enter through the back. Ran attempts to change her mind, but to no avail. Once inside, the two girls see a man and woman onstage practicing for the show and applaud them for their routine. When Tamanosuke welcomes them both, Ran and Sonoko apologize for intruding, as do the Detective Boys who snuck in too. An upset Sonoko scolds them for not listening, but Tamanosuke simply welcomes the children and thanks the girls for bringing them. He goes on to introduce everyone to the performers on stage: Ryuichi Muraki, age 26, playing the role of Edo Boy, and Yuri Shirai, age 22, who plays the main heroine. Sonoko introduces herself and Ran to the onstage performers and explain that they are passing out the flyers. She then tells Muraki that he had amazing moves, which he and Yuri explain are necessary in order to remain in the troupe. As Tamanosuke begins to take Ran, Sonoko, and the Detective Boys backstage, Muraki tells him to hurry back with the script because the show is in two days. Sonoko and Ran apologize for upsetting things and tell Muraki that they’ll be gone as soon as they get the flyers.
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| Tamanosuke's sister, Megumi, comes across everyone backstage. |
In Tamanosuke’s room, Megumi begins going through the unpacked baggage to find the photo of her brother as a kid. The photo of a young Tamanosuke dressed as a geisha catches Conan off guard, thinking to himself that he looks nothing like that. Ayumi and Sonoko both find the photo adorable, while Genta observes that Tamanosuke looks like a doll. The only one to see any resemblance of Conan turns out to be Ran. When Ayumi begins tugging at Conan’s arm, saying that he would look cute all dressed up like that, Megumi looks on with jealousy and takes Conan off to the makeup room. An increasingly upset Ayumi, along with Mitsuhiko and Genta, quickly follow along while Ran and Sonoko take their time.
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| Megumi shares a photo of Tamanosuke as a child in geisha attire. |
When Megumi, still clung onto Conan, and everyone reach their destination, they notice a woman inside who Megumi introduces as Itoe Ogara, the troupe’s treasurer. As she leaves the room, Itoe asks Megumi if Conan is her boyfriend. After a round of denials, the Detective Boys, minus Conan, play dress up with the Geisha props. Suddenly the building shakes. Everyone stops what they are doing and rush into the hall.
Meanwhile, Tamanosuke is thrown out of a room and into the hallway where he slams into a wall. Muraki and Yuri both rush from the stage to see what’s going on, the former rushing to the ringleader who was sprawled out on the floor. When Megumi, Conan, Ran, Sonoko, and the Detective Boys reach the hallway and see Tamanosuke on the ground, Megumi rushes over to her brother’s side. When his sister asks him if he’s okay, Tamanosuke tells Megumi he is fine, all the while gasping for breath. While the visitors look on in shock, Itoe returns from her office in complete shock. Muraki yells at the man, Tetsuo Chikaishi, who threw Tamanosuke, asking him what he meant by a disagreement over the script. Chikaishi responds by stating that he finished the script and is in the process of printing it out, but that Tamanosuke requested he rewrite the ending. The writer defends his actions by saying that he was simply trying to scare the ringleader, stating that the boy has no way of understanding society at such a young age. Looking for agreement, he asks a second man in the room, Kenzo Tajima, who simply glares back at Chikaishi. Noticing that his cigar had run out, the writer throws a bag of coins to Tajima and tells him to go buy cigarettes. Although Yuri offers to do the task for him, Tajima simply complies.
Once Tajima has left, Megumi tells Chikaishi that he had too far this time, leading her brother to try and calm her down. Tamanosuke asks why the ending can’t be rewritten, to which the writer answers, “Fact is fact, fiction is fiction. You can’t mix it together.” The young ringleader chooses to give in, thanking the writer for his hard work and telling everyone that they need to go rehearse. Although Muraki, Yuri, Megumi, and Itoe all rush to his aid when he struggles to get to his feet, Tamanosuke tells them that he’ll go to his room for a bit. Megumi lends herself for support as the two siblings head for the ringleader’s room. Conan thinks to himself that age aside, there was no need for Tamanosuke to get so agitated; the little detective believes there is more to the story than the ringleader let on.
Later, Conan entered the room where Chikaishi was working. As the young detective puts on his child façade, Conan speaks out loud about how surprising it is that the script prints out so slowly. When the printer finished, he grabbed the script and began to skim it, all the while being stared at in confusion by Chikaishi. Conan reads the title aloud as “Kaito Edo Boy”, surprising himself for real this time. The writer confirms what Conan is thinking, telling him that the current day thief inspired him to write the script. Suddenly, Itoe take the script from Conan, however, and goes to photocopy it per Tamanosuke’s request. As Chikaishi closes his laptop and pulls out a disk, he notices the Detective Boys reading through his notebook compiled of notes on Edo Boy. When Ayumi asks Conan who Edo Boy is, he tells everyone that he is a nationally famous thief that recently appeared near Tokyo just half a year prior. Conan goes on to say that Edo Boy is a new-age thief that escapes via rooftops or jumping around off as if he was weightless, a talent that would later earn him the name “Flying Kid” from the police.
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| Tamanosuke is kicked out of the room by the scriptwriter, Tetsuo Chikaishi. |
Conan asks Chikaishi if he is right, later stating how some of the people in the troupe could do acrobatics similar to that of Edo Boy. Getting straight to the point, the young detective asks if Edo Boy is somebody in the troupe. Chikaishi confirms the theory, stating that the troupe travels all around Japan to perform. When Muraki and Yuri suddenly appear at the doorway of the room, Chikaishi blurts out that Muraki had once been questioned by the police. Yuri looks away and chooses to leave the room, shortly followed by a glaring Muraki. Chikaishi then claims that he understands why the ringleader would want the troupe to do a performance based on Edo Boy, which is why he did so much research himself, and that the data concerning everything is on the laptop. When Ran and Sonoko pop their heads in the room calling for Conan, the writer tells the kids to get out. Once the door closed, Ran comments about how much trouble Chikaishi made for Tamanosuke. When Conan asks where he is, Ran says that Tamanosuke is resting from such a big shock. Ran then says that is time to go, with Sonoko adding in that they got the flyers. Conan says he and the Detective Boys don’t want to leave yet, but Sonoko tells them that they have to help distribute the flyers. As Sonoko leads the way, Conan mentions that the exit is in the other direction. She claims that by going through the backstage, it’s quicker to get to the station, leading the Detective Boys to discuss what kind of food they want Sonoko to buy them there.
At the station, while Ran and Sonoko are busy handing out flyers to people, Conan puts his stack into a brochure kiosk and runs toward towards the theatre in an attempt to sneak away. However, predicting Conan’s actions, the Detective Boys soon follow. Despite his best efforts to ditch the three children, Conan gives in and simply allows them to tag along. Upon returning to the theatre, Megumi runs into the hall wearing her costume for the play where she notices the visibly shocked Detective Boys. Pleased that they hadn’t gone home yet, Megumi asks Conan if she looks pretty and that she will be practicing soon. When Conan asks where the ringleader is, Tamanosuke walks out of the same run his sister came from, also in performance attire. Unlike with Megumi, the Detective Boys all think Tamanosuke’s costume looks cool. Conan asks the ringleader if he plays the role of the boss in the performance, to which Tamanosuke confirms, noting that their rehearsal is about to begin. When he offers the children the chance to watch them practice, Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko all accept.
As Ayumi walks around the stage admiring the props, Tamanosuke arrives and yells to Ayumi to be careful and not stand there. Unsure of what was so dangerous, Ayumi notices a hole and loses her balance, almost falling in. When Ayumi asks why there was a hole on stage, Tamanosuke apologizes for not warning them and tells her that it leads the stage basement. Both Tamanosuke and Ayumi apologize just as Muraki, dressed for his role as Edo Boy, comes up from the stage basement on a motorized platform, causing the Detective Boys to fall back from shock, only to later comment on how cool the thief costume looked. Once the platform reached stage level, Muraki pressed stop on his stop watch, reading aloud that the mechanism took 1 minute and 40 seconds, far too slow for the performance. Megumi then explains to Conan that the platform can rise faster if they chose, leading for a grand appearance or disappearance by the thief during the show with the help of other stage effects. Megumi then asks Conan if he’ll help her out of the costume later, stating she can’t change quickly by herself. Tamanosuke disapproves at his sisters request, and then asks Megumi to bring the children to their seats in the audience. Megumi tells Conan to watch her during the show before rushing back on stage. Meanwhile, Conan wonders what Chikaishi changed the ending of the play to.
Conan then narrates the play in brief, first informing the viewers that Tamanosuke played as Officer Itarou while Megumi played as the officer’s assistant. The two had been following Edo Boy, who had gone all over Japan committing crimes, until they narrowed his location down to a drama troupe. However, Edo Boy was someone else; the person that Itarou killed was innocent. In the end, the troupe continued to travel on a new journey. Following the rehersal, Megumi yells out to Conan, asking him how it went. Ayumi and Mitsuhiko both yell out that it was great. After asking her brother if she could get her friends juice, Megumi starts to run off stage when Tamanosuke asks her to bring Chikaishi back with her. When Megumi gets to Chikaishi’s door, she knocks and calls out for him, but he doesn’t respond. Thinking that he’s asleep, Megumi opens the door and enters the room and sees him on the ground unmoving. Her screams grab the attention of Conan, the Detective Boys, and her brother, as well as the cast, who all rush to her aid. When they arrive at the room, Megumi crawls over to her brother, crying that Chikaishi is dead.
Deep in thought, Conan suddenly asks Kogoro why Tamanosuke was considered an important suspect if he himself was knocked out in the back of the head. To explain Conan’s question, Kogoro states that doctors did not find many external injuries and currently believe that the coma could have been induced by mental fatigue. Conan finally understands the logic, thinking to himself that Tamanosuke could have been overwhelmed by how he would escape after doing something wrong. Kogoro then brings up the topic of the two notes found at the crime scene, announcing to the Detective Boys that both notes were confirmed to be written by Tamanosuke. Going even further, he explains that every single member of the troupe and been given a piece of paper by the ringleader with the same exact message. Conan questions why Tamanosuke was looking into Itoe’s past, to which Kogoro has no answer. He does, however, note that Itoe had embezzled large sums of money from the troupe’s treasury. As Conan questions whether Tamanosuke would have really needed to kill her for that, Kogoro tells the child to bring him a beer. With the mood now ruined, Conan reminds him that it isn’t dark yet, which Kogoro simply laughs off. After bringing him the beer and a snack, Conan asks whether or not Chikaishi’s disk had been found. Annoyed by the question when trying to enjoy his beer, Kogoro tells Conan that the disk had been found in the trashcan of Tamanosuke’s room with all of the data having been erased. Finally fed up with all the questions, Kogoro tells the children to head outside and play, but later regrets it when he wants another beer and no one is around to get it.
Conan observes the body and notices that the victim was struck on the back of the head. A shattered vase lying next to the body leads Conan to wonder if it is the murderer’s weapon. After sending someone to call the police, Tamanosuke begins to shake, a reaction that Conan notices and considers strange. The ringleader pulls himself together and rushes to the laptop where he notices that the disk is missing. As Tamanosuke frantically searches, Conan and the cast all look on shock. When Megumi asks her brother what’s wrong, he suddenly calms down and tells her that he’s fine, but when Muraki asks if something is gone after noticing how messed up the room is, Tamanosuke tells him that nothing is gone. Conan, who saw the disk earlier, wonders why the ringleader is hiding the fact that the disk was missing.
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| After the murder's been found, Tamanosuke is looking for something that's missing from Chikaishi. |
Later, the police arrive at the theatre. Ran and Kogoro quickly run past the check-point holding off the crowd and enter the building. Meanwhile, Inspector Megure begins to question the troupe. When asked for confirmation from the ringleader that the victim in question was the troupe’s writer, Tetsuo Chikaishi, age 35, Tamanosuke nods in assurance, just as Ran and Kogoro arrive at the stage. Ran runs over to Conan and scolds him for leaving without telling her anything, to which the young detective apologizes. Kogoro then runs over to Inspector Megure and is asked what exactly happened. The famous detective explains that the victim was estimated to have died an hour prior and was most likely murdered by somebody within the troupe. Giving a sigh of agreement, the inspector then asks Tamanosuke where exactly everyone had been within the past hour. While the ringleader hesitates to respond, Megumi runs to his defense, clinging onto his arm as she tells the police that everyone had been on stage rehearsing the performance. Thinking to himself, Conan agrees with Megumi, adding that because he was sitting in the audience, he could see each and every movement on the stage. Continuing on, Conan notes that as it was only a practice run, all members of the troupe would remain backstage if they were not in a particular scene, meaning that the only time people were out of sight was when they were changing.
Megure’s continued investigation leads him to question Muraki, who had been alone in the basement during the play just before his grand entrance on stage as Edo Boy. Muraki confirms this, but also adds that another member of the troupe was watching the entire show backstage, providing him with an alibi. Conan speculates to himself that whoever the killer was, they stole the disk and managed to hide it before returning to the stage. Realizing that nobody had mentioned the disk yet to Megure, Conan blurts out that the inspector needed to find it and then tests the reaction of Tamanosuke by asking the ringleader to confirm this, which results in another shaking fit. As Conan continues to think about the case more, he begins to wonder if someone else hid the disk in place of the killer. Either way, the young detective is positive that the culprit is one of the troupe members.
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