Severed Head Balloon Case

The **Severed Head Balloon Case** is a murder case that occurred in Tokyo.

It is the 16th main case in the *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* series.

## Overview

Around 11 p.m., a group of people were on the rooftop of a mall in Tokyo. They wanted to take photos for a magazine after getting permission for it. The model was dressed as a clown and held multiple helium-filled floating balloons in each hand. He noticed red liquid on his hand and looked up to the balloons; among them was a severed head. The sight startled him, he let go of the balloons, and they, alongside the head, floated away. Because everyone panicked, nobody took a picture of the severed head.

## History

At night, on a mall's rooftop, a group of people get ready to do a photoshot when the model notices that blood is dripping from a severed head balloon that has somehow gotten mixed with the ordinary ones. They scream, and the model lets go of all balloons, releasing them into the sky.

The next day, Totomaru is shopping in the same mall. While looking for Press Butter Sand for his grandmother, he hears Amamiya ordering a seafood bowl. Totomaru calls out to her and asks if she is shopping too. Amamiya tells him that today is her maintenance day; once a month, she comes to the mall to relieve stress. Toto believes that she is so stressed because she has so much responsibility at work, but Amamiya tells him that hearing about Kawasemi's accomplishments is the true cause of her stress.

Toto and Amamiya head to a café where she continues to complain that Kawasemi is doing exceptionally well after he bounced back from his slump after the Mad Chameleon Murder Case, and it is driving her insane. Amamiya blames Totomaru for this; after all, he helped Kawasemi out of his slump. After listening to her complaints, Totomaru wants to cheer her up. He suggests calling "Kamoo," but she insists that she cannot possibly meet him in workout clothes. She is about to buy new clothes and makeup when Ron replies to Toto, telling him that he is busy right now.

A moment later, they overhear a woman telling her friend a severed head mixed in a bundle of balloons. The balloons and the head floated away; because the story sounds so unbelievable, she and the other witnesses did not go to the police. Amamiya has her doubts about the story—after all, who would go through this trouble? However, when Toto remarks that this seems like a good chance to show up Kawasemi, she decides to look into the case, but not without telling Toto that he will take responsbility for ruining her day off if the matter turns out to be nothing.

Amamiya and Toto go up to the mall's roof with the woman from the café who has called two more people who were there yesterday. They tell them about their photoshot yesterday at 11 p.m. and how they noticed the head among the balloons. Some of the head's blood dripped onto the clown costume though which one of them has brought with him. The costume is then sent to forensics.

Afterward, Toto asks Amamiya what she thinks of the story. Amamiya says that she does not think they were lying, but it is hard to imagine how the head ended up between the balloons because there is nothing on the roof and the closest buildings are dozens of meters away; thus, the head could not have been lowered down from above. She theorizes that it might have been an optical illusion—a billboard's image that was reflected by the nearby building's glass facade and onto a balloon. However, because so many witnessed the same illusion, it is unlikely that this is the solution; Totomaru correctly guesses this as well.

Amamiya asks him if the reason why he has been arresting so many people lately is because he investigates cases nobody else wants to touch. Toto affirms this, and Amamiya tells him that they will continue the investigation as she cannot sit by while Kawasemi arrests one criminal after another. Together, they ask various people who have not seen anything of note until they get to a man who spotted a drone flying above the mall. At first, Amamiya and Toto think that this could be it, but after the man clarifies that he saw the drone in the evening and that it was too small to carry a watermelon, they discard that thought. Toto suggests that the head could have been carried by a balloon, but Amamiya informs him that, because of the head's weights, hundreds of balloons were needed to lift it.

Later, they sit down on a bench on the mall's roof. Their only lead is a black cloth that was on the roof, and Totomaru even texted Ron about the case, though he has not replied yet. Totomaru then apologizes to Amamiya for ruining her day off, but she replies that it is fine as this has happened to her quite often. She adds that she finds it funny: She never imagined that she would ever investigate a case as eagerly as this one with Toto, especially not on her day off and without her wearing any makeup. Toto remarks that he thinks she looks good even without makeup, and she tells him to shut up as her investigating a case without wearing makeup is only a mark of her devotion to work. Shortly afterward, Toto gets a call from forensics who confirm that the stain on the clown costume is human blood.

After the confirmation that there was indeed a floating severed head, Toto and Amamiya immediately start to work on the case again and ponder how the head ended up among the balloons and then floated away. In this moment, Ron approaches them. He says that it looks like he showed up at the right time: snack time. Toto and Amamiya are surprised by his sight, and Ron asks Toto if this is what he wanted to say before he cut him off: Why did the killer have to go through the trouble of making the head appear in mid-air?

Toto and Amamiya are also surprised that Ron is wearing pajamas. Ron says that he hurried to deliver ice cream to them before it melted; Toto thinks this is too weird an excuse, but Amamiya graciously takes the ice cream. She gets so caught up eating it that she even forgets that she is not wearing make-up; Ron reminds her that he has seen her like that at the Benizome Hot Springs and reassures her that she looks lovely without make-up.

While Amamiya has her ice cream, Toto tells Ron everything about the case. After Toto shows him a photo of the building, he receives another call from forensics. They found a match for the blood sample: Omoda, a CEO and the missing person whose case was assigned to Amamiya. She informs Ron and Totomaru that Omoda vanished at his workplace three days ago after he had received an anonymous death threat. She and some other officers searched his office last night, but could not find anything; Omoda had disappeared without a trace although the company's new building is equipped with a state-of-the-art security system.

Amamiya points the building out to them as it can be seen from the mall's roof. Seeing it, Ron solves the mystery and says that the severed head and the balloon met by accident. However, he does not tell Totomaru his deduction. Instead, he leans a half-eaten popsicle against a rise as a hint and tells Toto that he has already met the culprit. Amamiya thanks Ron for the ice cream before he leaves. Totomaru notes how weird Ron is acting. After all, he always wants to be at the crime scene.

Then, Totomaru tells Amamiya that he "believes" they have already met the culprit and points out the popsicle to her, saying it may be a hint. When she sees it, she immediately understands what he is trying to say. They hurry back to the old condo building to see Takumi Tonami; they questioned him earlier.

Tonami is outside his condo watering some plants when they arrive. He asks them if they made any progress in their case. Amamiya comes straight to the point and unmasks him as the killer.

Tonami killed Omoda in his company's building. However, due to the high security, he could not easily get the corpse out of the building. Because of that, Tonami cut Omoda's body into smaller pieces, wrapped them in black clothes, and transported the corpse bit by bit via a wire to his condo; he had strung the wire between the company building and his condo building with a drone earlier in the evening—Amamiya saw through this trick after seeing the popsicle piece sliding down the handle. Only Tonami could be the culprit as he is the only one who lives directly across from the north side of the company's building.

At first, Tonami feigns ignorance and denies Amamiya's claims, but when she says she has a warrant to search his room, he confesses to the crime. He says that he killed Omoda because they founded the company together, but he ran him out. Amamiya tells him that she will listen to his story back at the station and then calls back-up to arrest Tonami.

Afterward, Amamiya says that she does not think this is enough to catch up with Kawasemi. Nevertheless, she thanks Totomaru and says that he did a good job; they could only solve this case because of him. He should not get full of himself though as he is still a rookie.

Amamiya then heads home to wash her face—she had put on makeup being the back-up arrived—, and Toto goes to the Maison du Kamonohashi. He finds Ron waking up from a nap in front of the building. Ron informs him that he took his medication against Kill on Sight a few days ago. Lately, its side effects do not go away after a day of sleeping anymore. He constantly falls asleep for days after taking the medicine. Earlier, he had to force himself to go to the mall after receiving Toto's message. On the way back, he fell asleep in front of his apartment building. Toto suggests to stop taking the medication, but Ron refuses. He also tells Toto that they received their next case: One that is very important to Ron.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 49, pages 2-5
2. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 49, pages 11-12
3. ↑ "If you are reading Kamonohashi Ron, in chapter 49, Toto mentions he wants to buy butter sandwiches for his grandmother.
It is not bread and butter. He's referring to a cookie sandwich filled with buttercream and caramel. It's called Press Butter Sand." — Amano News on Twitter
4. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 49, pages 2-20
5. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 50, pages 2-19
6. ↑ Mistranslation — Amano News on Twitter