“Kid, go back inside,” Suzuki said. “This isn’t a game.”
Conan ignored him. He knelt by the water and saw it: a second rope, frayed, leading deeper into the pond. Attached to it was a stone lantern—and tangled in the chain, a man’s glasses.
Conan’s breath caught. His hand went to his watch. Detective Conan Episode 377
The victim was a folklorist named Kenji Tono. He had been researching local yōkai legends, particularly the water imp known as the Kappa. Three nights ago, he had told his wife he was going to the pond to “record the truth.” He never came back.
He closed the book.
“The ‘Kappa’ wasn’t a monster,” Conan cut in. “It was a pulley system. You tied the second rope to a tree, looped it under the water, and when Tono knelt to take a photo, you pulled. He drowned in inches of water, and the current carried him to the deep channel.”
By dawn, the confession came. Suzuki had been embezzling funds from the tourism board. Tono had discovered the truth and planned to expose him. The Kappa legend was just a convenient ghost story to hide a very human greed. “Kid, go back inside,” Suzuki said
He looked up at Suzuki. “You knew he’d come at night. You used the legend to cover up a murder.”
But the figure turned. It was just the local detective, Suzuki, examining a rope tied to a submerged rock. Attached to it was a stone lantern—and tangled
His car was found abandoned on the forest road. Inside: a voice recorder, its battery dead, and a notebook with one legible entry: