Case Closed Manga Chapters 913-915 The Kawanakajima Murder Case (Woodpecker)

Case Closed Manga Chapters 913-915 The Kawanakajima Murder Case (Woodpecker)

Summary, Analysis, & Deduction

Timeline

Disclaimer: The summaries are written based on the facts in the manga, but the analysis and the deduction are all based on opinions and prior knowledge. Feel free to correct and comment to make this post better. Thank you!

In typical Gosho Aoyama fashion, the famed Mangaka grabbed his loyal readers’ attention with a murder scene that leaves the readers’ mind full of questions. In the middle of the seemingly tranquil Mt. Saijo of the Nagano prefecture, a man in casual wear was threatened by another man whose physical appearances we do not know yet, but we do know that he was wielding a bladed weapon. The casual dresser pleaded for missing from the man depicted in a human-like silhouette, claiming that he is sorry and told the man, and I quote, “If this gets out, you won’t be able to live normally anymore either...Your life will be over…Please consider this carefully.” To which the man depicted with dark silhouette responded with “Those who desire life will die...And those who desire death will live…” The quote that the man recited is attributed to Uesugi Kenshin, a daimyo who ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. What followed was a merciless slaughter where the man in casual wear was beheaded, not before having what looked like a bird’s leg forced onto his forehead. Afterwards, the killer stood over the lifeless body of his prey, thinking silently to himself: “I am Bishamonten. The god of war who will destroy the woodpecker…”

As you progress through the pages you learned that the man that was killed in the beginning of the chapter was a man named Takeda Shibaru, and was in charge of a squad consisting of policemen from the Nagano Police force. We were also granted some insights on the Battles of Kawanakajima, where Uesugi Kenshin (daimyo) and Takeda Shingen (another daimyo) fought. While staring at the statues depicting the infamous battle, a strategy that Takeda’s army employed during his conflict with Uesugi Kenshin was brought up; a strategy with the curious name of the “woodpecker”. Members of the Nagano police force that Takeda was put in charge of started to show up. First, Saegusa  Mamoru, the inspector of the Nagano police, popped up. Followed by Akiyama Shinsuke, a 26 year old police sergeant of the Nagano police that have just recently adopted his mother’s surname after his parents went through a divorce. Finally, Kano Shouji, assistant inspector of the Nagano police, showed up to inform everyone that he has not been able to get to in contact with the leader of their squad. Though he hasn’t shown up yet, a “chief” was mentioned and was described to have a liking towards black tea.

As inspector Yamato Kansuke casually leans over the bridge of the “Red River,” he spotted Takeda Shibaru’s head floating on the river amongst a trail of blood. In addition, a burnt and beheaded body was found on the bank of the “Red River.” By inspecting the scorch marks on the corpse, Yamato Kansuke concluded that Takeda had died a few days earlier but the fact that Takeda’s head has just recently flowed into their sight with massive amount of blood is quite suspicious. However, Conan points out, probably in his cute and innocent child’s voice, that the rope attached on the bridge is an indicator that the head along with artificial blood was placed in a plastic bag that hangs on a rope that will break over time. When the forensics team arrived, an “x” shaped mark was shown on Takeda’s head after luminol has applied. (This indicates that the culprit must have a basic knowledge of forensics.) What Yui revealed is that the “x” shaped mark, which is similar to the footprints of a woodpecker, could be related to the Woodpecker Organization that Takeda Shibaru was in. The forensics team also commented on the fact that the beheaded body’s right toe wasn’t affected by the fire. Therefore, a DNA test could be done to confirm whether the body is Takeda’s or not.

Later on, it was revealed that Takeda have killed two men on two separate occasions. Once was 9 years ago, when he shot a man that was shooting randomly on the streets. The second occasion occurred half a year ago, when Takeda killed a man who held hostages in a bank. This lead the members of the police force to suspect that the murder of Takeda was done out of vengeance for one of the two men that Takeda killed during his career as a police. An interesting plot twist was thrown in when Kansuke Yamato was revealed to be childhood friends with the men that Takeda shot 9 years ago. Kansuke then proceeds to exit the building and headed towards an unknown location.

The next major event that transpired was the murder of Kano Shouji. The circumstance surrounding Kano’s death is one that calls for suspicion. Moments before Kano’s death he was looking through the files of the case that happened 9 years ago at his home. However before he separated from the remnants of Takeda’s squad, he alerted four individual members of his destination. Namely, Hyoue Kuroda, Kansuke Yamato, Saegusa Mamoru and Akiyama Shinsuke. Based on the fact that Kano was killed when he was alone in his house, an opportune moment to kill, the the culprit must be one of the members that knew about Kano’s whereabouts. From the manga panels, it can be safely assumed that Kano found some vital information about the case that transpired ago, but was silenced before he could relay the information. (The person he was trying to contact could be Kansuke Yamato, due to the 10 unanswered call notifications that Kansuke received).  

When Kano was found he was hung onto the ceiling, with the cause of death most likely be strangulation. The group that arrived at the scene of the crime deduced that the trick could be that the culprit placed Kano on the chair that was on the table to be hung to the ceiling, which is an act that even a disabled person like Kansuke Yamato can manage. The group then talked about the weird text messages stating something along the lines of “woodpeckers… three left”, implying that the culprit intends on killing 5 people in total.

Since everyone except the main characters and recurring characters are viable suspects in this serial murder case (with the rare exception of Kansuke Yamato on this occasion) , this is the suspect pool that we have assembled so far:

(Suspect Pool: Kansuke Yamato, Saegusa Mamoru, Akiyama Shinsuke, Hyoue Kuroda, Kano Shouji (deceased))

Later on Akiyame Shinsuke went to Mt. Saijo in his car with undisclosed motive. When he was found, his neck was tied to the back of the car. Akiyama desperately cried out for help and started to shout things concerning his cell phone before the car drove off the cliff, with Akiyama seemingly beheaded in the process.

(Suspect Pool: Kansuke Yamato, Saegusa, Mamoru, Akiyama Shinsuke (death not confirmed), Hyoue Kuroda,  Kano Shouji (deceased))

As a continuation from the previous chapters, Rum, a member from the Black Organization has one artificial eye. In this case (#pun), the two characters that match the description are Yamato Kansuke and Kuroda. Since Yamato Kansuke has been a character that was introduced a long time ago, but reappeared recently, this coincidence could be a trick to lure the readers into thinking that he is Rum. As for Kuroda, if he were Rum, then he wouldn’t be the culprit of this case because an almost-boss level in the Black Organization wouldn’t risk to kill so closely with Mori Kokoro involved. If Kuroda were the culprit, then he would very unlikely be Rum because if Rum were to be put into jail, then the excitement of introducing Rum in such a mysterious way is in vain.

The message, which stated  “Woodpecker...three more,” that was sent might indicate there will be a total of five people getting killed.

Akiyama Shinsuke’s body was beheaded when he fell down the cliff, and the parts of his body would likely be involved within the explosion of the car. From the explosion, Akiyama could easily devise a trick that could fake the corpse of himself by burning the corpses and escaping the fire. With the time that he had, alone, up in Mt. Saijo, he could easily set up the trick and gather attention by screaming from the inspectors when they arrive at Mr. Saijo. This could explain why he had just started to scream when the inspectors was in sight. The trick could involve the body another person who was not killed on screen but also a part of the Woodpecker Organization. Since the body was going to be burned by the car explosion, the owner of the body could be indeterminate. Conclusively, Akiyama Shinsuke could definitely be alive and could remain one of the prime suspects.