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School's Seven Mysteries Murder Case, alternatively titled Smoke and Mirrors, is the fourth case in Kindaichi Case Files : File Series.
Story[]
Ahead of the annual fair at Fudo High School, Hajime and Miyuki are recruited into the Mystery Club to help solve the mysteries surrounding an old building in the school ground. Before long, however, they're entangled in yet another mystery, regarding the murders of the club members.
Characters[]
Suspect List[]
- Yuichiro Matoba (??) - Fudo High School physics teacher. Mystery Club advisor.
- Ryuta Saki (16) - 1st Year Fudo High School student.
- Makoto Makabe (18) - 3rd Year Fudo High School student.
- Ruiko Sakuragi (18) - 3rd Year Fudo High School student.
- Ryozo Tachibana (50) - Fudo High School security guard.
- Takahiro Onoue (17) - 2nd Year Fudo High School student.
- Tomoyo Takashima (17) - 2nd Year Fudo High School student.
The Seven Mysteries of Fudo High[]
The Seven Mysteries of Fudo High is a set of curses said to revolve around mysterious deaths and disappearances at the north campus building of Fudo High.
Abandoned Biology lab[]
One evening, a teacher told his female student to change a light bulb at night using a candle as the only source of light. She lost her balance and hanged herself with a part of her uniform. When the professor came to check on her, he only found hanging body illuminated by the candlelight. Unexplainable events happened some time later. When the Biology Lab lost power, a professor that was grading papers lit a candle and saw the same hanging body from before. As soon as the power was back on, the body disappeared.
The Spooky Printing Room[]
In the old printing room, a student accidentally cut off his hand with the paper-cutting machine. He was rushed to the hospital but died at arrival. The school and the police tried to find the severed hand but could never find it. Ever since, it is said that people can hear the sound of a boy crying in pain and see the severed hand crawling around.
Bloody Fountain[]
A student drowned in the fountain and it became a fountain of blood.
Legend of the Evil Thirteen Steps[]
A student was once looking for his friend in the old campus building. As he went down the stairs, he knew that they were supposed be twelve steps. As soon as he reaches the last step, he counted thirteen and found his friend dead.
The Ginkgo Tree[]
There was once a student who was being bullied and ended up hanging himself at a Ginkgo with a manji engraved on its bark. It is said once in a while the hanging body reappears and disappears at night.
Goddess of Wisdom[]
Once, a statue of a Goddess tumbled down from a bookshelf in the library onto a student's head and he died instantly. Ever now and then, the crushed body is said to reappear at night covered in blood.
Cases[]
First Case[]
Kindaichi, along with Miyuki, is invited to join the Mystery club by the club president Ruiko Sakuragi and investigate the real truth behind the seven mysteries evolving around the old school building. Only six of the mysteries are known and it is rumoured that the one who finds about the seventh mystery will die immediately. The principal receives a threatening letter from somebody addressing himself as "Afterschool Conjurer" to stop the demolition of the old school building.
One night, Ruiko was staying late at school investigating about the seven mysteries when an earthquake occurs. Ruiko discovers something which leads her to the truth of the mysteries. She calls up Kindaichi and the other members of the mystery club and asks them to come to school in order to show her new findings. While searching for Ruiko along with the security in-charge, Kindaichi sees the hanging corpse of Ruiko in the biology room and the so-called "Afterschool Conjurer" (wearing a mask and black clothes) performing the death ritual by drawing a pattern on ground and lighting several candles. Kindaichi and the security person run to the biology room in the old building which hardly takes three minutes but to their utter shock, find that the corpse had disappeared along with all the arrangements and the conjurer exactly like the first mystery.
Puzzled over this instant disappearance, everybody goes home. Next day, when they come to school, they find Ruiko's hanging corpse in the biology room along with the remnants of the death ritual - a pattern on the ground and wax from burnt candles. Ruiko had left a code in the computer.
Second Case[]
Another Mystery club member who solves Ruiko's code is also murdered before he can declare his findings. His corpse is found hanging from the ginkgo tree, like in the legend.
As Kindaichi delves deeper, he comes to know that about ten years ago, girl had disappeared from the old school building while investigating the mysteries of the school. Also Kindaichi learns that the old school building was originally the workroom of a pharmaceutical company. After shifting their workroom to another place, they donated this place to Fudo High School.
Third Case[]
While snooping around, Miyuki takes off a poster from the wall of a room and discovers a dark secret. But before she can tell anyone, she is attacked by the culprit. When Miyuki goes missing, Kindaichi deduces that she might have been attacked and taken to the place of the third mystery, the bloody fountain. Miyuki is saved by Kindaichi in time but being seriously injured, she is hospitalised. Miyuki tells Kindaichi about her discovery. With the newly gained information, Kindaichi investigates further and solves all the mysteries involved in the case. He gathers all the persons involved in order to uncover the real identity of the "Afterschool Conjurer".
In reality, these are fabrications created by the physics teacher of the school, who used to be a scientist for the pharmaceutical company. Once, the company acquired six volunteers/test subjects, but their experiment failed, resulting in their death. Panicked, the researchers decided to hide their bodies, but the research building was converted to the school campus of Fudo High. So, they embedded the bodies in numerous places around the school buildings, and spread horror stories about the locations of the bodies, hoping it would be enough to drive the students and teachers away from those places. A member was sent to the school as a teacher to make sure that the bodies aren't found. So there were originally six mysteries as there were six dead bodies. The last legend was created ten years before this story, when a girl who knew too much was killed by the teacher. Just as before, her body was embedded into a wall in a class-room, and a rumour was spread about the seventh mystery- that the person who finds the seventh mystery will be put to death.
The Seven mysteries were revived when the school wanted to tear down the old building, and fearing exposure of the bodies, the teacher sent a threatening letter to the principal under the guise of "Afterschool Conjurer." Unfortunately, the Mystery Club, led by Ruiko Sakuragi, decided to investigate the seven mysteries. Ruiko stayed late at school trying to find more on the seven mysteries. However, an earthquake occured and the corpse of the missing girl from ten years emanated from the walls. The teacher, who was keeping a watch on the Mystery Club, saw it and murdered Ruiko. The teacher placed the corpse back again inside the walls but couldn't hide the large hole exposing the corpse. So he placed a poster over it to cover it. The other Mystery Club member was killed by the teacher when he tried to take the poster off. He also attempted to kill Miyuki for the same reason but failed. The code left by Ruiko actually meant "The bones are hidden in the walls". As for the trick used for instant disappearance of the corpse, it was based on physics' simple theory of reflection. The biology room was directly visible from the new school building but the physics lab was not.
Ruiko's corpse was initially hung and the whole elaborate setup was made in the physics lab. Then the teacher placed a huge mirror diagonally in the biology room and due to the positioning of the two rooms, the scene from the physics lab was reflected in the in the biology room. From the new school building Kindaichi and company thought that the setup was in biology room and were thus tricked. The three minutes which they took to rush to the biology room, were enough to take away and hide the mirror. After everybody left the campus, the culprit redid the whole arrangement in the biology room to be found the next morning.
Conclusion[]
After the truth of the case is revealed by Kindaichi, the security officer impulsively stabs the murderer and reveals himself to be the father of the girl who disappeared ten years ago from the school. He had taken this job in the school in order to find out the truth. The case ends with memorial service being held for the deceased.
Another Death After Conclusion[]
Gallery[]
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