Serial murders!
Yes, yes, yes...
Yes, understood.
I'll leave at once.
What is it sensei?
A case at long last.
With this we'll be able to pay the rent we owe.
That's...
Ah, It's been a while.
You're looking well, Inspector Jinroku.
Still, who would have thought you'd find a mansion like this up here in the mountains
You didn’t know? This mansion belonged to an internationally respected artist, Mr. Itoshiki Sakebu.
Itoshiki?
Yes. The same surname as you.
It seems the townsfolk would respectfully call him 'Mr. Scream.'
Inspector...
Ah...
This is the famous detective from Tokyo, Itoshiki Nozomu.
Itoshiki?
Yes, the same name as your Sensei.
I read about you in the papers!
You’re a famous detective right?
Well.. I wouldn’t say famous…
You always unravel the mystery,
However by that time the involved are all dead.
So you were nicknamed Detective Despair!
Stop that please! It's bad for business!
The person that lived here was this Mr. Itoshiki?
Yes. Mr. Itoshiki was the guardian of the 12 young ladies here.
Mr. Itoshiki lost his life to a chronic illness.
There's no doubt about that.
Mr. Itoshiki passed on and his will was announced.
The two young ladies were killed almost straight after that.
The first victim was Meru...
The second Maria.
Both bodies were discovered in a strange condition.
The culprit is a complete phantom.
Where on Earth he appeared from, and where he disappeared to...
Then the will presented a problem.
Upon turning 18, the 12 young ladies...
...Nami, Harumi, Chiri....
...Kafuka, Abiru, Meru...
...Maria, Kaere, Ai...
Mayo, Manami and Kiri, will have the estate divided evenly between them.
Evenly you say?
Yes, evenly.
In other words, as their number decreases each individual’s share grows larger.
Inspector! You mean to say that one of us is the culprit?
No, no. It's the responsibilty of the police to...
Wait a second! There's no way we'd do something like that!
To accuse us of being murderers!
That's right! How rude, I'll sue!
Chiri-san wouldn't... We wouldn't...
What do you mean by that?!
You're the one who...
Please, now's not the time for...
Inspector Jinroku! Another body!
First those two, now Manami-san.
But what does this juice, and the written 'goal' mean?
It was me!
I'm the culprit!
It was Ai-san wasn't it?
You did this to Manami-san?
This happened because someone with an impure heart like me was here! There’s no doubt!
No doubt?
No, this young lady has a tendency of considering anything bad that happens to be her fault.
Perhaps you could call it delusions of offense.
At any rate, we can ignore it.
Delusions of offense?
It didn’t go as planned.
It's wrong but what can we do?
Inspector! An old lady from the town says she has something she needs to tell you.
We have to perform the autopsy now, there’s no time to be wasting on some old dame’s reminiscences!
But, she said you really should...
I suppose we can't ignore it. Itoshiki, could you go to speak to her for me?
Ok...
It seems this lady received a video collection from Itoshiki Sensei while he was still alive.
Video collection?
Mr. Scream loved cartoons you see…
When his child was young they used to watch them together all the time.
Anti-shock, recoil protection, fire wave motion cannon!
Fire wave motion cannon!
Still, what is she trying to say showing me this?
Major damage to the 3rd bridge!
The estate of Mr Itoshiki and twelve Dark Women.
Or should I say nine.
There!
That way!
Ah, Detective.
We're having game stew for dinner this evening.
We all had to chase the bird since it got away.
Don't shock me like that please!
Detective, you must think us strange…
You aren’t the daughters or relatives of the late Mr. Itoshiki…
Yes, we first came here as models for his paintings and sculptures.
At least that was how it was supposed to appear.
Supposed to?
In truth we were all Sensei’s mistresses.
Mistresses! But you’re all still…
It’s not unusual for high school girls to be involved in love affairs.
That might be so, but nonetheless…
Twelve is too many?
That much is true. We thought the same thing at first.
Anyhow, how did you end up becoming a detective?
Me? Surely we should be concentrating on…
It’s ok. We want to know about you.
I see.
I, I’m not sure myself.
Yourself?
Am I qualified to live? Is my life of worth to the world?
I got involved in these various cases trying to prove that to myself.
That’s why I became a detective.
You're a romantic...
What’s wrong!?
Come quick, they found another body!
Kaere-san!
This is…
What?
A ritual killing!
I see, Mr. Itoshiki also enjoyed anime and manga.
Yes, the title you mentioned was in his video collection.
Thinking about it, all the murders up to now have imitated a famous scene from an anime…
Yes! I’ve got it!
There was a manga fan amongst the girls! She’s the culprit.
These are ritual killings carried out in his memory!
Your logic is too heavy-handed no matter how you look at it.
Ritual killings based on anime...
That's it!
Now then everyone...
I know who the culprit is!
The culprit?
Who on Earth?
At the time Kaere-san was murdered there were a large number of police officers in this mansion.
For the crime to take place under their surveillance was near impossible.
The other cases followed the same pattern, almost as if the murderer were invisible.
For someone to be able to do this…
Anyone can see that you, Mayo-san...
aren't the culprit.
So it was me then!
This all happened because a person with an impure heart like me was here!
No, of course it wasn’t you either Ai-san.
I’m sorry, I’m sorry!
Anyhow, the person that was able to do this was…
You!
The person that was in this mansion from the very first incident without once showing himself.
Itoshiki Sakebu’s only son, Kagerou-kun!
You did well to notice my presence, the great detective Itoshiki Nozomu lives up to his reputation.
Who?
Who’s this guy?
The old lady in the village said that Mr. Itoshiki often watched videos with his child.
However the young ladies aren’t children of his…
I investigated and found Mr. Itoshiki did indeed have a son!
The son everyone had forgotten…
He was unusually lacking in presence, people wouldn’t notice him even as he was standing there…
A young man like a phantom…
He was nicknamed 'Mirage'.
'Where’s 'Mirage?' I often heard that asked.
As I grew older my presence became fainter and fainter.
Lately almost no-one sees me.
The reason you killed the girls was because your name wasn’t in the will, am I correct?
Wha? I didn’t kill anyone!
The most I did was peep a little…
Liar! This was all because your own father forgot about you…
You’ve got it wrong!
I’m not the murderer!
Thank you for coming.
Where are we?
Zekkyou-sensei’s works are kept inside this storehouse.
Detective, don’t you have something you want to say?
The one who committed the murders was Kagerou-kun, but...
You were the ones who arranged the bodies that way weren't you?
Let me ask, when Manami-san was found you said it was wrong.
You meant it wasn't the version Mr. Itoshiki preferred didn't you?
When I first arrived here I saw you all on the beach.
That was when you went to set up the ritual.
When you discovered Kaere's body you posed it before calling anyone.
What I don't understand is why? Why do such a thing?
Detective, you don't think we could have killed them?
Of course not, after all...
After all?
Unlike Kagerou-kun you don't have a motive.
Even if the others hadn't died you would still have inherited a vast amount.
It's not as though your inheritance would increase drastically just because one or two of you died.
Thinking about it rationally...
We...
We loved Itoshiki-sensei from the bottom of our hearts.
When we all graduated from high school, Sensei was supposed to choose one of us as his bride.
But he didn't choose anyone.
Maybe he didn't love any of us at all.
He only loved us as models...
Or perhaps as works of art...
Thinking that, that was our despair!
The will was simply an excuse...
Who he loved the most...
Don't you think we could have killed each other after fighting about that?
That can't be!
Your name was Itoshiki too, Detective...
...and something about you resembled Sensei in appearance and manner...
The face of a man who would deceive and make sport of young girls!
Weren't you our sensei in a previous life?
Won't you choose one of us?
Help!
I'm in despair!
I'm in despair of other people's anguished hearts!
Somehow or other I escaped from the labyrinth which spread out beneath that storehouse.
By the time I got out the storehouse was on fire.
This was another tough case!
There's no telling how it might have turned out if you weren't here.
No, I didn't really...
You managed to solve the case but the involved parties all died once again, Detective Despair.
Wishes will never come true!
Wishes will never come true, the princess and the cowherd will never meet!
The Milky Way is a sewage canal, sometimes bodies go floating past!
What are you doing, sir?
You knew!
Every year I fall into despair during Tanabata!
I wouldn’t say we knew, we had an idea it would turn out this way though...
Wishes will never come true, you're wasting your time asking!
Your wishes will come true for sure!
Look at this perfect starry sky!
The stars will surely grant your wishes!
Maybe you're right...
In that case I'll try making a wish too.
Don’t hang that!
It’s a wish isn’t it? I can put whatever I want!
What someone wishes for is up to them!
You want to resign?
Yeah, I want to resign…
From teaching, and from life too!
You really are a great teacher!
Always keeping your letter of resignation on you, and giving yourself wholeheartedly to teaching!
I really just wanted to resign…
Wishes will definitely come true!
As long as they're hanging alongside the bamboo leaves your wishes will come true!
With that in mind I collected these students’ wishes from the post…
So...
What are those?
Application forms!
Come true, come true...
As long as they’re hanging there they’ll never be sent though…
What could they be at this time of year?
Aren’t they autumn university admissions?
By the way…
What pointless wishes did you all write on your tanzaku?
Pointless wishes?
Hmm, this is Kobushi-san’s tanzaku?
It looks like the territorial markings of some native people, a little unsettling...
This one is Otonashi-san’s?
I see, this way you can update your wishes as you need to.
It looks like I'm wearing a wig?!
This is…
I see, you wrote a reversible tanzaku for both sides of your personality.
Which is it right now?
This is...
It's mine.
I can't stand putting something vague like, "I hope that..."
I wanted to write it properly in detail.
Isn't this just a plan for your life at this point!
Maria's going to hang a tanzaku too! The monk wrote it for me!
You treat it realistically, so this is what you wish for?
This one is?
It’s mine!
Normal…
Don’t say normal!
Anyway, when are these wishes going to come true?
The next life? The life after that?
Is the reason I’m wearing glasses right now because I wished for them in a previous life?!
I see! That’s a fascinating point of view!
Don’t take the bait just like that!
Stop rising to the bait the second I say 'past life' or something like that!
Expecting such large wishes to come true in a single lifetime would be 'wishful thinking'!
Her imagination is firing on all cylinders again...
So successful people are that way because they asked to be in their past life, or even their past past life!
There's no way Ichiro could achieve such success in just one life!
He must have wished for it in a previous life!
Successful people must all have wished to be that way in a previous life!
I see...
You were here?
The whole time.
In short, our love was a wish from a previous life!
Huh?
How could you forget? We dived into Ojaga-ike in a past life in order to tie our fates together in the next!
What's this girl saying now?...
O Jaga Jaga Jaga, O Jaga-Ike!
Bamboo for the next life!
Bamboo for the next next life!
Wishes that don't come in this life will surely be granted in the next!
So let's write our wishes for our next lives!
Our next lives?
There's no need to push, we still have our next next lives!
It looks like she's winning some support.
In the next life I'll be a member of Morning Musume!
In the next life I'll marry the seiyuu Yokoyama Chisa!
In the next life we'll be signed by a major label!
Certainly people for whom it would be impossible in this life are making impossible wishes!
Even if it's impossible in this life it can happen in the next!
Next life! Next life!
Hmm, I suppose this is what religion is about after all...
The next life?
I'll try wishing too! Hang my tanzaku and...
Are you supposed to be a tanzaku?
My wish to go to my next life quickly wasn't granted.
You weren't really serious...
Komori-chan!
Maria learned a Kanji!
Maria, you're clever aren't you...
Rashomon
It happened at sunset one day.
A single servant was seated beneath the stage.
Worrying, worrying.
Sometimes you haven't got the luxury of choosing how you get by.
Besides, on top of the stage were nothing but women.
The servant jumped onto the stage and tore away the woman's underwear.
At that same moment a frightening man appeared .
"We have a problem here, don't we? This way please."
No-one knows what became of the servant.