The Case of the Sandbox Murder at Dawn

The Case of the Sandbox Murder at Dawn (夜明けの砂場殺人事件, Yoake no sunaba satsujin jiken) is a one-shot of the Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective manga. It was initially published in the Weekly Shōnen Jump Issue 10 in 2021 and only received a proper title upon its tankōbon re-release.
==Summary==
Toto visits Ron at his apartment. He brings out the picture of Ron he received from Kiku from Ron's days at BLUE. Ron opens the door to him. Toto muses that in five years Ron changed from looking sharp to messy, and Ron says it is precisely the "idiot and innocent" who is suitable to be his partner. 
Ron asks why Toto is around at 6am, Toto reminds Ron that Ron called him at 3am as he was bored to death without exciting cases. When Toto says there really is no new case, Ron flops onto the Floor of Sloth futon mats. Toto remembers that Ron is prohibited from continuing his detective career for a special reason. Meanwhile, he asks if Ron has been sleeping all day. But Ron says instead that he had tried to have a conversation with dead ants. 
Ron then thanks Toto for his hard work after staying up late doing paperwork. When Toto asks how does Ron know, he says it is simple, saying there are ink marks on Toto's hands, Toto held the shopping bag with his left hand instead of his right hand as was his usual manner. Toto confirms the paperwork, and Ron adds that Toto's hand feels sore because of tendinitis. However, Ron does not want to play simple games like that, but solve hard cases, saying it is because of Toto that he could be a detective. Toto however says that even if he says so, they would not give him any big case because he is not good enough. He adds that he is working so hard that he is hallucinating. 
Ron clarifies about the hallucinating, and Toto explains: While walking at dawn by the park, he heard a rustling sound, and when he looked, he saw a strange blue thing hovering in the air, and then it disappeared. Ron, however, finds that interesting, and gets up. He tells Toto they will go there. Toto runs after him with difficulty, saying he has not had proper rest. 
Toto says it was quite dark that moment, so it may have been his imagination. But Ron finds something in the park's sandbox: four rocks, eyeglasses, a flower stuck onto a hose, and the message "I was killed by Tetsu Yamada." Ron asks for digging tools, saying the spot is a tomb. He says stones and flowers are something you will find at any tomb. While he considers an animal's tomb, he wonders about the presence of the eyeglasses. Toto thinks it is just a prank and does not think a human is buried, but Ron is already interested in who is Tetsu Yamada. But after some movement of the sand and some gentle digging, they find a human face. 
Police are called in. The victim is identified as Tatsuo Kinoshita, a 21-years-old college student. The estimated time of death was 3am, and the cause of death was asphyxiation. Toto muses that being buried alive was a horrible method, that it was unforgivable and he would not let the culprit get away. But he is interrupted by a policeman asking who Ron is, because Ron has lay beside the murder victim. He wonders why the cuplrit would bother to make a strange tomb for him, but also promises to avenge him. 
Two young men arrive at the scene, both acquaintances of the victim, and appear distraught on seeing him. They introduce themselves as Hajime Satou and Tetsu Yamada. Ron and Toto are surprised at the name, meanwhile Yamada is surprised he is being implicated, saying how could a buried corpse write, that he is not the culprit, and someone tricked him. Ron asks if Yamada just got there, and why his shoes were full of sand and dirt. Yamada says he had been in the mountains recently, but Ron questions those shoes (which as flat-soled casual rubber shoes). 
Yamada snaps, saying he has an alibi. Toto agrees, saying Yamada said he is in the area from 12am until the present. Behind the park, Yamada watched a movie in his house with two of his friends. There is testimony to prove he did not come outside until he went out to take out the trash with Satou. Ron smiles at this, saying it is interesting. When Toto asks further, if he understood something, Ron just says he is chatting with ants. Toto replies that he should only do this in his home. 
Yamada strongly asks Toto to please catch the culprit as soon as possible, saying he should know what it is like to have a best friend killed. While Toto is promising to do his best, Ron starts shouting at the sandbox, imitating Yamada, telling them do they know what it's like to be an ant, saying antlion traps are brutal. Toto tells Ron to leave the ants alone, and why must he always screw around in the middle of an investigation. 
Toto says he is having trouble figuring out who the culprit is. But Ron says there is only one suspicious person in the case. Toto however says that if it is Yamada, there is no evidence. Why would he bother to leave his name at the crime scene? What is the meaning of the stones and the flower attached to the hose? Finally, Yamada has a perfect alibi. The tired Toto loudly exclaims he has no idea, he's been hallucinating about ghosts since that morning, and his brain is not working. But Ron says Toto is not hallucinating. It is all connected. With the flick of his hair he says if he wants to know about the tomb case, why doesn't he ask the ants? But he reminds Toto that he can't be the one to personally solve the case, and hands it over to him. 
Toto then gathers the police and the two suspects at the scene. The police at the scene do not believe in Detective Isshiki and what they have heard, he is a dead weight in their department. Toto speaks directly: the culprit is among them, and it is Yamada. Yamada protests, repeating he has a perfect alibi. But Toto says Yamada is faking his alibi. Yamada nervously laughs, saying that the police are being dangerous, arresting someone who did not step out of the house, and accusing his alibi is fake. But Toto continues: he was definitely not at the sandbox at the time of Kinoshita's death, but if you set the time of burying and time of death, the murder is possible for Yamada to do. 
Toto thus gives the sequence of events: Before the movie started at 12am, Yamada drugged Kinoshita to sleep. He then dug a hole in the sandbox and buried him. He initially made sure that there was enough space around the victim's head for air to enter. He also placed a hose to provide more oxygen. He then covered the hole around Kinoshita's face with a blue plastic sheet, with the four stones holding the plastic down. 
Toto gets rattled for a moment when asked what the hole is for, and Ron quietly reminds about the antlion trap. Toto continues: Yamada put sand over the plastic sheet and put a hole on the plastic sheet. This creates an antlion trap, with the sand slowly falling toward the center, gradually filling around Kinoshita's head. Satou understands, this is how he was asphyxiated. In short, the sandbox tomb is a timed suffocation device. Yamada tied the plastic sheet with a string, which he then pulled into the window of his house behind the park. The blue plastic sheet was the strange blue thing Toto saw when he walked past the park. 
Yamada protests again: why would he bother leaving a note that he was the killer? But Toto says it's the opposite: since Yamada thought he had the perfect alibi, he wanted to get investigated and questioned as soon as possible before his testimony falls apart. But Toto is sure that they would find the blue plastic sheet if they searched Yamada's house. 
Yamada surrenders, saying his life just ended. Meanwhile Toto asks Ron did he say it right, and Ron says it was perfect, thanking him for his hard work. Meanwhile Yamada rapidly says why he did it: he says it was Kinoshita's fault, saying he was cheating with Yamada's girlfriend. Yamada had been with Mika since junior high school, but Kinoshita had been flirting with her. 
While Toto says how could he do something so selfish, Ron activates the Kill on Sight, telling Yamada to stab himself, mourn on the dead with your own death. Yamada falls to the killing compulsion, breaking a glass bottle and pointing it at himself, in order to stab himself. Toto runs and tackles Yamada onto the sandbox to stop him. Meanwhile Ron recovers, asking into the suspect and telling Toto he saved his life today, giving his thanks. 
While Yamada is taken away, the policemen are now convinced Toto is a great detective. Meanwhile Toto asks Ron why he thought it was a case when he heard about the hallucination. Ron says one of things Toto has is a body that can withstand a single all-nighter, and he does not think he is naive enough to have hallucinations. Toto grumbles about being energetic. But also, he says they will uncover the truth behind difficult cases from criminals with malicious intents. The one he trusts and his friend, Ron Kamonohashi. 
==Characters in Order of Appearance==
* Ron Kamonohashi
* Totomaru Isshiki
* Tatsuo Kinoshita
* Hajime Satou
* Tetsu Yamada
==Trivia==
* The one-shot includes the flashback from Chapter 1.
==Navigation==
Category:Chapters
Category:Sandbox Murder at Dawn Case