Manga |
| “ | The bride wears her wedding gown and remains inside the church, so that she is absolved of her past sins, and begins life afresh... | ” |
—Jun'ya Kazamatsuri explaining the village's old tradition. | ||
Western-style Village Murder Case, alternatively titled The Mummy's Curse, is the second case in the Kindaichi Case Files - File Series.
Story[]
A photo of Wakaba Tokita, one of Hajime's classmates, and his teacher, Susumu Odagiri, coming out of a love hotel has been released by someone. As a result, Wakaba is brought back to her hometown in Aomori Prefecture, and forced to marry her fiancée. Hajime heads to Western-style Village with Miyuki and Odagiri to attend the wedding.
Western-style Village, also known as Hexagonal Village. A village shaped like a Star of David, with six Western-style buildings centered around a church, and eccentric residents lived there. In the basement of Wakaba's house, Hajime and his friends discover a headless mummy.
That night, Wakaba shut herself up in the church according to the custom (Bride spends the night at the village church on the eve of her wedding). A few hours later, the church bells ring. "The bell only rings at funerals." according to one of the house's owner,
Hajime and his friends headed to the church, feeling something ominous. When he went inside, they found Wakaba's headless corpse lying on a bed in the church.
Characters[]
Suspect List[]
- Reiji Kabuto (??) - Hexagonal Village Resident. Owner of the Armor House.
- Ran Goto (??) - Hexagonal Village Resident. Owner of the Tower House.
- Mitsuko Kusanagi (??) - Hexagonal Village Resident. Owner of the Plant House.
- Juzo Tokita (??) - Hexagonal Village Resident. Owner of the Clock House. Wabaka Tokita's Father.
- Susumu Odagiri (27) - Fudo High School Teacher.
- Kiriko Kabuto (17) - Hexagonal Village resident. Reiji Kabuto's Daughter.
- Hisahiko Renjo (??) - Wakaba Tokita's fiancé.
- Jun'ya Kazamatsuri (??) - Hexagonal Village resident. Owner of Weather Vane House.
- Torao Isshiki (??) - Hexagonal Village resident. Owner of Stained Glass House.
- Kotaro Tawarada (??) - Police Officer of Aomori Prefecture.
- Wakaba Tokita (17) - 2nd Year Fudo High School Student.
Cases[]
First Case[]
On the day of the celebration, Kindaichi and Miyuki are talking to one of the Hexagonal Village house owner Jun'ya Kazamatsuri of the Weather Vane House. He explain on what's the symbolism of the bride sleeping inside the church as a means to remove the sins of the bride and comes out as a new person. He also explain the village's brief history of being established by a group of foreign missionaries a hundred years prior and their goals of searching for the "Apple of Eden" which to this day, still a mystery.
Suddenly, the church bell tolls. Kazamatsuri is surprised as well as Kindaichi and Miyuki as the church bell is only tolled when there's a funeral. All people rushes to the church and finds it locked. Odagiri Sensei offers to help using his car's derrek. They quickly enters the church and finds the gruesome headless body of Wakaba Tokita lying on the bed.
Second Case[]
The night after Wakaba's body was found. Torao Isshiki of the Stained Glass House invites Kindaichi, Miyuki and fellow house owners to "celebrate" the death of Wakaba. While Miyuki is horrified by his insensitive attitude, Kindaichi agrees to join as he wants to look for his mummy. Isshiki tells the other about his hobby of eating exotic food, including one of his favourites: A fully roasted cat. Kindaichi and Miyuki excuses themselves and start searching his house. They found the mummy and later returns back to the feast as they found Mitsuko Kusanagi of the Plant House attacking Isshiki, mistaking one of her cats has been served as food.
After the party ended. All of the guests return back to their homes. Isshiki is later found dead inside one of his house's meat locker, missing his right leg.
Third Case[]
After Isshiki's death, Aomori police detective, Kotaro Tawarada, attempts to apprehend Mitsuko Kusanagi for the murder of Wakaba and Isshiki. Kindaichi quickly tells him that it's impossible for her to be the culprit as her physique couldn't carry a large man as Isshiki. Tawarada still make excuses and says that it must be Kiriko Kabuto, the daughter of Reiji Kabuto who disappear after Wakaba's death, even though she doesn't have a reason to kill Isshiki.
As the two argues, Miyuki found a cat walking towards them. Miyuki is surprised to see that the cat is holding a human finger on it's mouth. They all quickly goes to the Plant House and found Kusanagi's dead body, missing her right leg.
Fourth Case[]
At the Armor House, Reiji Kabuto is sitting while slightly angry on Juzo Tokita's irrational talks and denies that there's a curse. He later worries on the whereabout of his daughter and firmly believes that she couldn't be the killer. Suddenly, there's a cat noise coming from nearby. Kabuto thinks it's one of the deceased Kusanagi's cats. He tries to oust the cat and the cat accidentally crashes into one of the armor and the armor's helmet falls of and rolls towards Kabuto. The helmet reveals the head of his own daughter, Kiriko Kabuto.
Fifth Case[]
After explaining the cruel history of the Hexagonal VIllage, Kindaichi, Miyuki, Odagiri Sensei along with Juzo Tokita, Wakaba's father and the owner of the Clock House goes towards the church to prove that the mummy in the church is using the parts of the house owner's mummy. But when he found that there's no remnant of it being connected, Tokita starts to laugh and shouts that they're going to die, only for him to suddenly have a heart attack, and dies.
Sixth Case[]
After Tokita's death, Miyuki is kidnapped by an unknown person and later wakes up inside the Tower House, tied up inside Ran Goto's room. She explain that she's jealous of Miyuki's beauty and wants to kill her to gain eternal beauty similar to Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary. As she's boasting about herself, naked, she found someone enters the house holding a knife and kill her, later her left arm is cut.
Conclusion[]
Hajime reveals the village's secret: the apple of Eden is actually a field of marijuana, the demonstration of the seven mummies are actually the six daughters of the pastor by using seven dolls, he also reveals Kiriko was killed by Wakaba, then Wakaba was later killed by the "Seventh Mummy", he also reveals the killer to be his teacher Susumu Odagiri and reveals he isn't Odagiri but the seventh daughter's son, Ryuichi Rokusei.
Another Death After Conclusion[]
After his identity has been exposed, Rokusei kicks the table of the Weather Vane House and quickly grabs one of Kazmatsuri's rifle and holding Miyuki as a hostage. After a long monologue, he explain that he should've kill Kazamatsuri as well but his mother tells him not to as he saved her from death, even though Rokusei still thinks he's as guilty as the others, he let him be. But then, he points his gun towards Reiji Kabuto and shoots him right on his head. He quickly grabs Miyuki and run to the marijuana field while holding his rifle.
Miyuki tries to fight Rokusei but fails. As he about to threat her by shooting her, Hisahiko Renjo, the fiancée of Wakaba, ambush him and stab Rokusei, but it isn't enough to kill him. Rokusei, mad at the killing attempt, shoots Renjo and make him collapse. As he about to pass out, Renjo tells Miyuki that she looks a lot like Wakaba, and she understands that he also tries to avenge Wakaba's death.
After Kindaichi tries to explain on how wrong Rokusei is to manipulate Wakaba, he explain while he indeed exploits her for his revenge mission, he still has feeling towards her. Kindaichi is surprised that his feeling towards her is genuine. As Rokusei squeeze the trigger, a fail of gunfire hits his body and reveals that it's Jun'ya Kazamatsuri. He later explain to him that he's his son of him and Shiori and planned to be a happy family together. Rokusei, realizing the truth, release his last breath.
Kazamatsuri decides to redeem himself by burning the marijuana fields. Continuing the work of the deceased priest and later says his final goodbye to Kindaichi after he burn the field and shoot himself with his rifle.
Gallery Image[]
.jpg "Ijinkan Mura Satsujin Jiken (Manga).jpg (91 KB)")
(17 Apr 1993)
(Containing Chapter 1-6)
(17 Jun 1993)
(Containing Chapter 7-11)
Trivia[]
- This is one of two cases from File Series that haven't get any anime adaptation, along with the Head Hanging School Murder Case.
- Although the case's theme borrows several inspirations from Christianity, the Star of David is a symbol of Judaism.