Episode 816: Regrettable and Kind Alien
Scenario: Unemployed man Hanzaki Yasuo slips and falls to his death after he sees office worker Takedera Hitoshi wearing an alien costume. After questioning Takedera's three acquaintances who witnessed the incident, the Detective Boys investigate and close in on the truth.
One night, two office workers named Arisa Nakashima and Susan Trümpelmann are on their way home when they suddenly meet what appears to be an alien appearing at the lower end of a set of stairs leading down from an abandoned temple. The two women are frightened, but then the alien announces, "We are extraterrestrials" while tapping its throat, and asks them to take a picture of him and publicize it. Amused by this proposition, the two women cheerfully agree to this and pose for a picture and even a video clip with Nakashima's smartphone. Suddenly, they hear a man yelling in fear, "It's an alien!", and then the body of a man comes tumbling down the stairs from above. As it comes to rest at the bottom and the frightened women and their extraterrestrial friend gather around it, the "alien" reveals himself to be a costumed man.
After shouting "It's an alien!!!" in a panic, Hanzaki apparently missed one stair and then fell down, resulting in his death from blunt trauma and a broken neck.
The morning after that, the Detective Boys investigated the scene and begin to suspect the costumed man to be responsible for a prank gone wrong. However, they are met by a boy named Kota Matsumoto who claims that the incident was actually his fault: The culprit, Hitoshi Takedera, is an acquaintance of his, a kind office worker who plays with the children on his off-days at the children's center. Kota is a firm believer that aliens are mankind's friends. When a bully from his class claims otherwise, it apparently inspired Takedera to dress up as an alien and find witnesses to spread the benevolence "fact" in order to do his young friend a favor.
As the children contemplate Takedera's mishap, they witness Nakashima and Trümpelmann laying down flowers at the stair bottom and paying their respects to the deceased, Yasuo Hanzaki. When questioned about the accident, Nakashima produces her smartphone and shows them the video, which has by happenstance recorded the incident. The two women also confess that following Takedera's request of taking a picture of him, they had quickly realized that this must have been a prank and had played along just to humor him. The Detective Boys begin to reconstruct the details of the incident and realize that it may have actually been foul play since, considering the distance between the top and the bottom of the stairs, Hanzaki likely could not have recognized the costumed Takedera as an alien.
Deciding to investigate, the Detective Boys decide to question Hanzaki's next-door neighbour, Tsuneyuki Tamai. Tsuneyuki is able to tell them that Hanzaki was unemployed after having been laid off from his factory job, and was blackmailing someone, which makes the Detective Boys suspect that the blackmailee is very likely Hanzaki's murderer as well. Since Hanzaki habitually left his apartment door unlocked, the Detective Boys enter to look for clues, but all they find is an ashtray full of cigarette stubs, a lot of karaoke giveaway dolls, and a note from an ear, nose and throat clinic. But after some thinking, Tsuneyuki remembers a phone conversation between Hanzaki and his blackmail victim which suggests that Hanzaki was attempting to force him to give him his old job back. However, Hanzaki used to work for a mere subcontractor for the prestigious firm Sank Heavy Industries, which was not satisfyingly profitable.
Next, the Detective Boys meet Takedera, who has just left a police station after having been questioned. Takedera explains that he chose to adopt an alien disguise upon the suggestion of his old college friend, Akira Omi, who was a fellow member of his college's children literature club; the alien costume was part of a children's play he and Omi had concocted during their college days. But when he mentions that Omi requested him to be at a certain time and place to perform his act in front of witnesses, the Detective Boys instantly realize who the culprit is, but the possibility that Hanzaki would fall into a blind panic at the mere sight of an alien is factually next to nil. After Genta accidentally bumps his head on a lamp post with an advertisement sticker for an ear, nose and throat clinic, Conan at once realizes the decisive flaw the culprit has committed in the execution of his crime.
