Yadagami-sama Murders Case

The Yadagami-sama Murders Case is a murder case connected to the Yadagami-sama deity from Yada Village.
It is the ninth main case in the Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective series.
==Overview==
Ron, Totomaru, and Spitz head to Yada Village to search for Shepherd Fire who went missing there eleven years ago. Shepherd was an anthropologist who came to the village to find out more about Yadagami-sama, Yada Village's patron deity. Spitz accompanied him back then. He searched for his brother for years, but always in vain.
The day they arrive in the village, a surveyor has come to tell the mayor and the residents about government plans to build a dam in the area; the construction would flood the village, and everyone would have to be evicted. The villagers protest and claim that this would only enrage Yadagami-sama.
Spitz, Toto, and Ron are invited to stay in the mayor's house, specifically in his riverside room. When they have dinner there, Totomaru looks out of the window and across the river to the hut where the surveyor is staying. In the hut's window he spots a gigantic snake wrapped around a man. He, Ron, and Spitz then rush to the hut. The ground around the hut is wet from rain earlier that day, but there are no footprints anywhere. They open the door and hear a strange "bam" sound right afterward.
Ron, Spitz, and Toto search the hut, but no one is there. The next morning, the surveyor is found dead in the basin of the nearby waterfall. He has marks around his neck which look like a snake's scales, but likely come from a rope; police could not find one anywhere though. Forensics determine that the surveyor's direct cause of death was the blow to the head he received when he fell into the basin.
The mayor believes that Yadagami-sama killed the surveyor and teleported in and out of the hut. The villagers believe this as well. Furthermore, the only clue the police could find is a bottle of brown sugar on a tatami mat. Ron dropped it there yesterday; interestingly, the bottle does not lie where its stain is. Spitz also sees a "white snake" in the river from the hut's window.
Fifteen years ago, there were already plans to construct a dam in the area. The plans fell through when the heavy machines vanished on the day of the construction.
==History==
When he walks back home from work, Toto gets a phone call from Ron. Ron tells him that Spitz said he needs his help to find his missing brother, Shepherd, and wants Toto's input for this. Toto says they should help him; after all, Spitz helped them out with their investigations and because he feels bad for him. Ron then tells him that Spitz has been tailing him.
Toto spots Spitz on top of a building watching him. They then head together to the Maison du Kamonohashi to discuss the matter with Ron. Ron wants Spitz to steal BLUE's file on the Bloody Field Trip Case in exchange for looking for Shepherd because Spitz has been searching for years and the probability they are even able to find him is very low. Totomaru is aghast and scolds him for demanding that Spitz commits a crime; he cannot condone this. Especially considering that Spitz is their friend and his brother has nothing to do with this. Spitz is moved by Toto's words and agrees to Ron's condition. Totomaru tries to talk him out of this, but he holds firm. Not long afterward, they travel to Yada Village.
While they walk to the village, Spitz tells them about his brother, and they spot a woman by a waterfall. She has an insulated bag with her and stands next to a shrine. Some villagers then spot them and "accidentally" throw an axe at the tree right next to Toto. The woman runs away, and Ron, Spitz, and Toto continue their path to Yada Village.
There, they see a commotion: A surveyor has come to evict the village because the government wants to build a dam in the area; the village would then be flooded. The villagers protest and say that this will only enrage Yadagami-sama. The surveyor tells everyone that he will start his work tomorrow and that he will sue anyone who interferes before he leaves and goes to the hut where he is staying.
The mayor, who has always helped Spitz whenever he came to the village to search for Shepherd, then invites Spitz, Totomaru, and Ron to stay at his house. While they head to the mayor's house, it starts to pour. The mayor tells Ron, Toto, and Spitz that they call such sudden, heavy rain "Yadagami-sama's Scowl" and explains that the deity must be angry about something. Right before he lets them in, his granddaughter Mii arrives. She is surprised to see Spitz and asks what he is doing here. Spitz introduces her to Totomaru and Ron and tells her that they will be staying the night here.
Afterward, they have dinner in the mayor's riverside room; Mii and her grandfather eat in another room. Spitz tells Ron and Toto more about his brother's disappearance before Toto spots a gigantic snake wrapped around a man in the window of the hut. They hurry across the bridge, but they do not find anything or anyone in the hut. The next morning, the surveyor is found dead in the waterfall's basin.
The local police arrives, and Ron, Toto, and Spitz investigate too. As they discuss the incident and Spitz wonders out loud what they could have seen last night, the mayor arrives and claims he saw Yadagami-sama. He is certain that the god teleported in and out of the hut and dragged the surveyor out of it. Mii then joins them in the basin and demands to know why her grandfather is not stopping them from coming here; after all, only villagers are allowed near the waterfall.
Spitz says that he did not know that as he came to the waterfall every time he visited. The mayor tells him that they gave him special permission because of his brother. He adds that this is an exception too because somebody died before he explains to Mii that Spitz has become a detective and that Totomaru is a detective from Tokyo. Mii asks who Ron is then, and Spitz replies that he is his hobby buddy; they collect rare wrapping paper together.
Afterward, Ron asks Mii what she was doing by the waterfall yesterday. She and the mayor lead them up to the Yadagami Shrine, and she says that she was making an offering there. Ron is surprised that they really seem to believe in the deity which upsets the mayor and Mii. They defend Yadagami-sama, and the mayor says that the god's punishment of the surveyor is proof of its existence. A group of angered villagers arrive to defend the god as well, and Ron, Spitz, and Totomaru leave the waterfall because of that.
They then head to the hut, but are intercepted on the way by Muroi, a folklorist who came to the village to learn more about Yadagami-sama. He wants to know how things were at the waterfall because he cannot go there.
Totomaru confirms the surveyor's death, and Muroi tells them about Yadagami-sama's special status as a "living legend" and continuous reports about the god's "power of disappearance": Fifteen years ago, there was another attempt to build a dam here. However, the day the construction was supposed to begin, all heavy machinery vanished. Eleven years ago, Shepherd Fire disappeared, and Muroi himself had a brush with Yadagami-sama once when he rescued him from the mountains. Because of that, Muroi has become so enthralled with Yadagami-sama that he is contemplating about moving to Yada Village.
Ron then asks Muroi what he was doing yesterday. Muroi is upset that he is suspecting him and testifies that he was visiting the shrine. When he went there, it was temporarily closed though.
Afterward, they resume their walk to the hut. Totomaru reiterates everything they know so far, and while Spitz thinks that the "bam" sound they heard was the sound of Yadagami-sama teleportating, Ron is 200% sure that the culprit is someone else, not the god.
Inside the hut, a police officers informs them about the findings: They checked for hidden rooms and found none. The dust in the crawlspace above the ceiling is undisturbed. The walls and the window bars are sturdy and were not tampered with. There is also nothing under the tatami mats. The only clue they have is a bottle of brown sugar syrup. As this is the one Ron dropped last night, they have no leads after all.
This disheartens Spitz because if this means that Yadagami-sama likely exists and he will never find his brother. He looks out of the window and sees a "white snake" in the water. When Ron confirms this and considers the position of the brown sugar bottle and its stain, he solves the mystery.
Later that day, Ron, Totomaru, and Spitz gather everyone at the shrine, and Totomaru explains what happened: Not Yadagami-sama killed the surveyor—the mayor did.
The mayor took a picture scroll of Yadagami-sama from the shrine and attached it to a tatami mat in the hut. He stood the mat on end and held it in place with a string; one end of it was pinched in the door's frame, the other tied to a rock and then dangled out of the window. He made sure Toto, Ron, and Spitz would be in a room in his house from where they could see into the hut and spot the image. When they went to the hut and opened the door, the string was released and fell into the river, weighted down by the rock. The tatami mat fell down into place on the floor; that was the loud sound they heard. And the shrine was temporarily closed yesterday to hide the fact that a scroll was missing.
Toto, Spitz, and Ron deduced this because Ron dropped a bottle of brown sugar on that tatami mat last night. However, when they found it today, the bottle was not there where its stain was. This means that someone must have lifted the mat, and the bottle slid down it. They know it is the mayor because he made sure to have Ron, Spitz, and Totomaru in that specific room to get witnesses for his trick and because the mayor immediately spoke of Yadagami-sama when Spitz wondered who or what they could have seen in the hut last night; he did not even consider the surveyor although their conversation rather pointed to him than to the deity. Ron adds that the mayor used rope from the shrine to strangle the surveyor before pushing him into the basin. The rope's placement looks different from yesterday; therefore, someone must have moved it. Muroi is shocked that it was all a trick.
The mayor confesses. He says that he killed the surveyor because he hated him and wanted to stop the dam construction. Totomaru challenges his words, asking if this is truly the sole reason, but before the mayor can reply, Ron's Kill on Sight ability is triggered. He orders the mayor to fall into the waterfall, and the mayor, dazed, complies. Totomaru manages to stop him on time, but then, the ground under them crumbles. Totomaru holds onto the edge and the mayor to prevent them from falling. Someone throws a rope to them, and Mii, Spitz, and Ron pull them up. The mayor is arrested afterward.
Spitz, Mii, Toto, and Ron return to the mayor's house. There, Ron calls out Shepherd who has been hiding behind the house. He shows himself and wants to know how they found out about him. Totomaru, on Ron's behalf, tells him about Muroi's "Yadagami-sama" story, Mii's bag by the waterfall, and her odd reaction when she met Spitz afterward. She must have mistaken him for someone who looks like him—his brother—for a moment, and because the deity does not exist, Muroi must have been saved by someone living in the mountains. Because Mii brought her bag to the mountains, Shepherd must be hiding there.
Shepherd is impressed and informs them that he has been hiding in the mountains because he became a target of a "certain" organization eleven years ago. Spitz wants to know which organization he means, but Shepherd refuses to tell him because he wants to protect him. However, he reveals that the mayor killed the surveyor because of him. The surveyor realized that the mayor was hiding Shepherd for a reason and extorted money from him to keep the secret. He eventually escalated his intimidation and threatened to reveal the whereabouts of Shepherd; this drove the mayor to kill the surveyor.
Because he does not want to live at the expense of other people's happiness, Shepherd asks Totomaru to arrest him for instigating the heavy equipment theft fifteen years ago; it was his idea to prank the government officials with Yadagami-sama's powers. Spitz and Mii protest, but Shepherd holds firm. Then, Ron challenges Shepherd's words: The mayor may not have been protecting him but his granddaughter's feelings for Shepherd.
Shepherd is surprised to hear that and asks Mii if she really feels that way; she wordlessly and tearfully confirms it. Ron and Toto then leave Shepherd, Spitz, and Mii alone to give them some space and time on their own, though Ron claims he simply wants to get away before it starts to rain again. They have angered Yadagami-sama after all by dragging Shepherd, the man the god was hiding, into the open.
Sometime later, Spitz breaks into the classified document storage room at BLUE. He is immediately caught by Aimee Emmerich who has been expecting him. Spitz is prepared for any consequence but, to his surprise, Emmerich only has a request for him.
Spitz returns to Japan and meets Ron and Toto in Ron's apartment. He gives Ron the tablet with Emmerich's message which is locked with a password. To figure out the password, a code has to be solved; Spitz's and Toto's personal information is needed as well which means Emmerich wanted them to hear the message too.
After putting in the password, Ron reads the message to Spitz and Totomaru: Emmerich says the info about the lead Ron is searching for in the Bloody Field Trip Case been deleted from both the files at BLUE and Scotland Yard. The lead was blood at the crime scene that neither belonged to Ron nor to any of the victims. Because the investigators could not solve the locked-room mystery, the blame was placed on Ron back then. However, because of the Island Observatory Murder Case, Emmerich is sure the M. Family is behind the Bloody Field Trip; they also gave Ron his "96"-scar and his Kill on Sight ability when his injuries were treated. Although she knows that and wants Ron to get his detective license back, she cannot simply reopen the case because she has learned that there is a M. Family spy at BLUE. Emmerich ends her message asking Toto and Spitz to take good care of Ron and telling everyone to be careful.
Ron and Spitz are shocked to learn this because of the M. Family's notority. Toto does not understand the weight of the situation at first, suggesting to simply arrest the M. Family, but Spitz and Ron inform him that the M. Family is not any criminal organization: It is history's greatest crime family, no case they were involved in was ever solved, and all BLUE graduates who wanted to solve those cases died "mysteriously." Still, Ron is excited because of this revelation. He knows the M. Family will eventually come after him when he and Toto keep solving cases, and he is determined to drag them into the light.
In England at the M. Family headquarters, Teo tells Mylo Moriarty that Chris wants to leave the family, and Mylo promptly orders his and his family's deaths. Winter Moriarty then asks Mylo why he is allowing a "mix" to keep living, and Mylo replies that Ron is their brother because of their blood ties and he still has to determine if Ron has any value for the M. Family or not.
Winter declares they will never accept Ron as their brother. Mylo asks them if they are still angry because he ordered Alice's death; Winter does not answer. Mylo then says there is only one way to satisfy both their wishes: by giving Ron a detective's despair. Because, then, Ron would have to decide whether to abandon his deductive skills or not. In any way, they cannot allow him to be a detective because he is a Holmes too.
Winter says they will go all out, and Mylo tells them he has prepared a ticket to Japan for them so that they can give Ron a "taste" of the M. Family's terror.
==Trivia==
* In Volume 4, the steps to solve the tablet code are detailed. It has to be solved with the Dvorak keyboard. The numbers (18940503-19751009) are August Dvorak's birth and death dates. The code says: 
** 
==References==
==Navigation==
Category:Cases
Category:Part 1 cases
Category:Yadagami-sama Murders Case