Episode 166: Tottori Spider Mansion Demon (The Murder)
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| Three years ago, Misa and Kinuyo committed suicide by hanging. After getting her face injured by her father, Misa became depressed. Three days after she hanged herself, her mother Kinuyo hanged herself as well. |
Scenario: Hattori Heiji, bringing along Kazuha, is hired by the rich Takeda family to investigate a series of suspicious suicides that has plagued their mansion in Tottori Prefecture. Along the way, he gets lost but runs into Robert Taylor, a lost American, and Kogoro, Ran, and Conan, who happen to be traveling to meet the same client for the same reason. After arriving at the mansion, they meet the Takeda family, consisting of Yuzo, Yoko, Ryuji, Nobukazu, Sae, Emi, Chie, and housekeeper Shioya. Yuzo explains to them of the “spider curse”; in ancient times, a beautiful woman morphed into a gigantic spider attempting to attack a traveler, it was shot with burning arrows and retreated to the forest where it died. Misa and Kinuyo Takeda both hanged themselves, and 3 years before, Akio hung himself as well. When dinner is finished, Nobukazu disappears, but is found in hanging in a locked room with his corpse entangled in a “spider‘s web.”
Later that night, Kazuha finds a pearl on the ground outside and, unbeknowns to her, is being stalked by the killer.Hattori Heiji, bringing along Kazuha, is hired by the rich Takeda family to investigate a series of suspicious suicides that has plagued their mansion in Tottori Prefecture. Along the way, he gets lost but runs into Robert Taylor, a lost American, and Kogoro, Ran, and Conan, who happen to be traveling to meet the same client for the same reason. After arriving at the mansion, they meet the Takeda family, consisting of Yuzo, Yoko, Ryuji, Nobukazu, Sae, Emi, Chie, and housekeeper Shioya. Yuzo explains to them of the “spider curse”; in ancient times, a beautiful woman morphed into a gigantic spider attempting to attack a traveler, it was shot with burning arrows and retreated to the forest where it died. Misa and Kinuyo Takeda both hanged themselves, and 3 years before, Akio hung himself as well. When dinner is finished, Nobukazu disappears, but is found in hanging in a locked room with his corpse entangled in a “spider‘s web.” Later that night, Kazuha finds a pearl on the ground outside and, unbeknowns to her, is being stalked by the killer.
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| Few days ago, Negishi committed suicide by hanging. But Nobukazu suspects murder. |
Heiji and Kazuha take a motorcycle ride to the Yonago mountains of the Tottori prefecture, but they get lost in their way there. Kazuha remarks on how they forgot their cellphones and have run out of gas, and Heiji yells at her (and childishly pulls on her cheek) for tagging along when it isn't needed. It turns out Heiji was hired for a nice amount of money by a rich Tottori family to investigate some odd things that have happened in their home, but didn't give him their phone number.
The two are close to the forest and don't have camping gear handy, so Heiji says they should just plop down and sleep close together to keep each other warm. Kazuha is flustered at the idea and then gets angry when Heiji adds that he hopes she won't snore... and them someone appears from behind them and teases them about how couples shouldn't fight. It's an American man named Robert Taylor who is fluent enough in Japanese to understand their banter and acts very familiar towards the two; he mentions a Takeda family that housed him some years ago, and Heiji and Kazuha recognize their surname as the one of the family that hired Heiji... but he's lost, so he cannot really help them to get to their mansion.
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| After the dinner, Nobakazu goes to the shed to make some puppets, but when they discover that Nobukazu was not sleeping they search for him and so hanging on the shed. Heiji reveals that it is murder because there is no such thing as spider's curse. |
A van passes around and, to call up the attention of the people in it, Heiji throws his helmet towards them... The driver's compantion turns out to be Kogoro, who gets hit and gets VERY mad at Heiji. Ran and Conan are also with him and they give Heiji, Kazuha and Robert a ride to the Takeda property. It turns out Kogoro was also hired by the Takedas, and for a very high sum of money as well, even sending out one of the family members, third son Yuuzo, to pick the group up in their van. He and Heiji discuss how the cards they also got from the family are rather odd and refer to a "spider". Yuzo Takeda explains that this about a "spider curse" that has befallen the Takeda family and their home, known as the "Spider Mansion of Tottori", one that no criminal should get close to. Yuzo then talks to Robert, whom he remembers from the time he was in Tottori. They talk about a girl named Misa, but Yuzo doesn't reply when he asks about her well-being.
When the group arrives to the Takeda household, Robert is devastated to learn that Misa, who had taken care of him in his last visit, killed herself by hanging few after his departure. Her mother Kinuyo and the family friend/associate Akio Negishi also commited suicide in a similar way. The one who relays the news is Youko, Yuzo's sister in law, who has just come from Tokyo alongside her husband Ryuuji and their kids Sae and Emi; Negishi was the business partner of Nobukazu Takeda, a famous doll-maker and Misa's father, as well as the one who actually hired Kogoro.
Nobukazu is surprised to see that Kogoro has brought several people with him, and he makes Heiji, Kazuha and Conan pass off as Ran's friends. He then talks briefly to Robert, who thanks him for letting him stay around some time ago. The twin girls Sae and Emi also arrive, but when Robert greets them cheerfully, they quietly call him "murderer" and accuse him of coming to kill people again before their mom scolds them and run away. The matriarch of the family, Chie, also watches them from a distance.
