Junji Kaji

**Junji Kaji** (加持 純二, *Kaji Junji*) is Juntaro Mihane's younger brother.

## Physical description

Kaji has dark hair streaked with white and light-colored eyes. He greatly resembles his older brother Juntaro Mihane.

## Biography

### History

Seven years ago, Kaji's older brother Juntaro Mihane bought the Moon Prison and shut himself in the prison "to connect with space." Not long afterward, Juntaro disappeared, and his family filed a missing person report, but he was not found and eventually declared dead. His corpse was found seven years later in the Moon Prison by his family.

Two weeks before the corpse's discovery, Kaji, his sister-in-law Youko Mihane, his nephew Kiyotaka, and his brother's servant Kaki Sakanoue went to the Moon Prison because they wanted to liquidate Juntaro's estate. Because the door was locked, Kaji suggested to break the prison's sole window to get inside, but Youko reminded him that its glass is unique and breaking it would reduce the Moon Prison's value.

Later, Kiyotaka contacted the Sun Prison's owner and asked them if he could borrow the Sun Prison key to unlock the Moon Prison. The Moon Prison key was damaged in a house fire seven years ago, shortly after Juntaro was reported missing. As the two prisons are twin buildings, their keys are identically shaped and, thus, the Moon Prison can be unlocked with the Sun Prison key as well. The Sun Prison's owner agreed, and the key arrived two weeks later. Juntaro's family opened the Moon Prison and found his corpse lying inside. Curiously, when they were there weeks earlier, they had not seen Juntaro's corpse through the window.

### Twin Prison Locked Room Murder Case

After finding Juntaro's body, Kaji, Youko, Kiyotaka, and Kaki call the police. When the police arrives, they are questioned by an officer, and later observe Amamiya, Ron Kamonohashi, and Totomaru Isshiki inspecting the Moon Prison. Kaji quietly stands by while Kiyotaka shows Toto a picture of the empty prison which he took the first time they went to the Moon Prison.

Later that day, Fin Fennec, a locked room expert who has arrived in the meantime, solves the locked room mystery. She then gathers everyone to tell them what happened: The culprit never entered the prison in the last seven years—and neither did the corpse. Juntaro's body was in the prison for all these years, hidden behind a dummy wall made of foamed styrol. The block were likely connected via a cord which was threaded through the chimney; its end was stuck out of it and fixed to ensure that it did not slip back inside. The culprit never wanted anyone to discover Juntaro, but when they learned his family asked for the Sun Prison key to be delivered to Japan, they went to the Moon Prison and pulled on the string, lifting the blocks through the chimney and removing the dummy wall. This is the reason why Fin found pieces of foamed styrol in the fireplace. She also suspects that the dummy wall held some kind of clue that pointed back to the murderer.

She deduced that there must have been a dummy wall because, in the photo Kiyotaka took, the sunlight is striking a larger area of the wall than it does now although Kiyotaka's and her picture were taken around the same time, from the same location, and with the sun at the same height. Therefore, two weeks ago, the wall was closer to the window than it was now.

The murderer can, thus, only be someone who knew the Sun Prison key was being delivered to Japan. This brings the spotlight to Kaji, his nephew, his sister-in-law, and Sakanoue. However, Fin does not reveal the culprit as her only goal was to solve the locked room's mystery; she leaves the rest to the Metro Police and returns with Shachi to the guesthouse where they have been staying, the Moon Lodge.

The next day, Kaji's corpse is discovered in the Moon Prison: He has been tied up to a chair and stabbed multiple times—just like the victim in the Sun Prison Murder Case many years before. It is likely that Kaji was killed after he was tied to the chair.

His nephew Kiyotaka later testifies that Kaji was fixated on finding Juntaro's killer; Kiyotaka had tried to talk him out of it, but he did not want to listen. Youko adds that Kaji was furious about Juntaro's estate allocation because Juntaro left him nothing. Kaji wanted to find evidence that would prove Kiyotaka as his father's killer so that he would get the money. Kaji also learned about the Sun Prison Murder Case when he researched the Moon Prison following his brother's disappearance.

Ron later solves the mystery surrounding Kaji's death: Fin did not find anything in the prison because the culprit knew about her Phoenix touch ability and found a way to destroy a clue's material properties. The clue was a powerful neodymium magnet. The murderer inserted it into the brass bar and concealed it with a brass cover which they polished to get rid of any evidence that the bar had been tampererd with. They attached the magnet to the door, a bit above the bar bracket, and then left the room. Afterward, they used a blowtorch to heat the door and the bar until the bar was heated to 330 degrees—neodymium's Curie temperature, the point that has to be reached for the material to lose its magnetism. The bar then dropped into the brackets and locked the door.

Because the culprit used a blowtorch they were not familiar with, they hurt their left hand—and Sakanoue has been suspiciously covering her left hand. Sakanoue confesses that she killed Kaji because she promised Youko's mother to protect her, and Kaji wanted to pin Juntaro's murder on Youko and Kiyotaka to get his hands on the Mihane fortune.

## Relationships

### Juntaro Mihane

Juntaro is Kaji's older brother. Kaji idolized him, but was angry that he did not leave him anything in his will.

## Etymology

* The name "Junji" means "pure, clean, simple" (純, *jun*) and "two" (二, *ji*).
* His surname "Kaji" means "blessing, incantation, faith-healing" (加持).

## References

1. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 51, pages 8-9
2. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 51, pages 6-7
3. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 51, pages 2-3
4. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 51, pages 9-12
5. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 51, pages 7-12
6. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 53, pages 3-13
7. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 53, pages 18-19
8. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 54, page 5
9. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 54, pages 9-11
10. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 55, page 3
11. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 56, pages 2-11
12. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 54, page 11