Manga Spin-off: Mini Vacation | Manga Spin-off: Criminal's File | Anime | Game |
School's Seven Mysteries Murder Case is the 1st case in Anime Kindaichi Case File : 1997 Series.
Summary[]
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.
SEVEN MYSTERIES (in order)
- Unknown Mystery
- 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 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.
- 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.
Story Plot :
Kindaichi, along with Miyuki, is invited to join the Mystery Research Club by the club president Sakuragi Ruiko and investigate the real truth behind the Seven Mysteries revolving 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. After the Mystery club meeting, Sakuragi showed a floppy disk and a Minutes book to Kindaichi and Miyuki, saying that it might be the key to solving the Seventh Mystery, and that she has high expectations of Kindaichi to solve the mystery as well. One night, Sakuragi was staying late at school investigating about the Seven Mysteries on the word processor when an earthquake occurs. Sakuragi discovers something which leads her to the truth of the mysteries. She calls up Kindaichi and asks him to come to school in order to show her new findings. Kindaichi arrives, with Miyuki in tow, in the room with the processor, he gets spooked by Onoue, who suddenly asks if they were also called here by a weird phone call. The caller said that "There will be a death ritual at 10 o'clock, so come", and they were soon discovered by the security in-charge, Tachibana. It was nearing 10 o'clock, Tachibana told the kids to go home, but Kindaichi said that he had a weird feeling and asked if he could go with, while asking the others to stay at the security office. While Kindaichi and Tachibana went to look for Sakuragi during their patrol, they saw a light in the Forbidden Biology room, which according to Tachibana, no one should be able to enter. Taking a closer look at the room, see a pair of legs suspended and a silhouette. The scene cuts to a white hexagram on the floor with white lit candles, and they see the hanging corpse of Sakuragi in the biology room and the so-called "Afterschool Conjurer" (wearing a mask and black clothes) performing the death ritual. Kindaichi and Tachibana 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 Sakuragi'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. Sakuragi had left a code in the computer.
It is then revealed that Onoue, another Mystery club member, took the floopy disk that Sakuragi was using and kept it to himself. He then solves Sakuragi's code but is also murdered before he can declare his findings. His corpse is found in the printing room exactly in the same way as in the second mystery. While deducing what happened to Onoue, Kindaichi and Miyuki heard a door close, hinting that someone was eavesdropping on their conversation. Kindaichi immediately chases after the eavesdropper to find out it was Tachibana, the security guard. Tachibana had the Minutes that Sakuragi showed him before, when handing it to Kindaichi, and gave him a cryptic message, "I found it in the morning after she died. I hope this will come in your aid". As Kindaichi and Miyuki delve deeper, they come to know that about ten years ago (1987), a girl by the name of Aoyama Chihiro, had disappeared from the old school building while investigating the mysteries of the school (co-incidentally Aoyama was also a member of the Mystery club). According to the message that Aoyama left in Minutes, she mentioned that she was trying to solve the Six Mysteries of Fudoh High instead of the current seven. Kindaichi also learns that the old school building was originally the workroom of Takahata Pharmaceuticals'. After shifting their workroom to another place, they donated this place to Fudoh High School. 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 Sakuragi, decided to investigate the seven mysteries. Sakuragi 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 Sakuragi. 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 Sakuragi 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. Sakuragi'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.
After the truth of the case is revealed by Kindaichi, the security officer impulsively stabs the murderer and 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.
Characters[]
Suspect List[]
- Yuichiro Matoba - Fudo High School Physics Teacher.
- Ryuta Saki - Fudo High School 1st Year.
- Makoto Makabe - Fudo High School 3rd Year.
- Ruiko Sakuragi - Fudo High School 3rd Year.
- Ryozo Tachibana - Fudo High School Security Officer.
- Takahiro Onoue - Fudo High School 3rd Year.
- Tomoyo Takashima - Fudo High School 3rd Year.
Cases[]
First Case[]
Second Case[]
Third Case[]
Conclusion[]
Another Death After Conclusion[]
Manga/Anime Differences[]
- This case becomes first case on the series. However, Kindaichi and Inspector Kenmochi already becomes an acquaintance.
- Changed the person who becomes the Afterschool Magician from Professor Jinbo to the teacher classroom with initial "M" who had performed a strange ritual in old school building.
- Changed one part of the seven mysteries. That is a consequent of Takahiro Onoue's corpse that selected becomes a part of "crawled wrist in printing room" mystery.
Gallery Image[]
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