Screaming Castle Murder Case

*This article is about the episode in the drama. For the novel of the same name, see Screaming Castle Murder Case (novel).*

## "Screaming Castle Murder Case"

* Screenshot
* Title Card

## Episode Information

### Episode

*Rinshō Hanzai Gakusha Himura Hideo no Suiri* episode 1

### Based on

"Screaming Castle Murder Case"
from *Screaming Castle Murder Case* by Alice Arisugawa

### Running Time

58 minutes

"**Screaming Castle Murder Case**" (絶叫城殺人事件, *Zekkyō-jō Satsujin Jiken*) is episode 1 of *Rinshō Hanzai Gakusha Himura Hideo no Suiri*.

## Plot

In the middle of the night, Hideo Himura awakens from his nightmare of killing someone, while Alice Arisugawa writes a novel at his flat. Himura's landlady, Tokie Shinomiya, answers a phone call coming from the police requesting for Himura's aid at an investigation. Himura contacts Alice, and the two go to Hotel Cadenza in Kyoto, where a murder has occurred.

Julia Kaneko, a show assistant of spiritual artist Nick Hallelujah, was murdered in the latter's hotel room. The Kyoto Prefectural Police, including Hisashi Nabeshima, Keiichi Sakashita, and Munenori Yasoda, believe the case to be a locked-room murder, with both the window and the door of the room locked from inside. Having found Nick's fingerprints on the murder weapon, they make him a prime suspect for the case, despite his denial of their allegation.

Himura interrogates Nick and his manager Yoshinaga, initially to the distrust of the latter two due to the criminologist's seemingly irrelevant questions and remarks. After a brief questioning, Himura claims that the trick behind the locked-room mystery is Nick's "spirit magic", specifically a thin transparent wire. He deduces that Julia, erstwhile dead, was pulled from outside the door using said wire by the criminal from across the room, whom Himura identifies to be Yoshinaga. With this conclusion, Himura and Alice excuse themselves from the scene. Outside, Himura remarks that the crime was not beautiful.

The following day at Eito University, three female students attend Himura's lecture on the relationship between crime and society, discussing the case of Jack the Ripper. After the class, they approach him at the cafeteria, and Akemi Kijima asks Himura's opinion regarding the recent random street assaults, especially the criminal's possible profile. She also asks whether he has thought about killing someone, to which he acquiesces. The students are caught off guard, and Himura advises them to be careful at night before taking his leave.

That night, two weeks after the last street assault, a third murder occurs. The police contact Himura and Alice to aid in the investigation. Detective Nozomi Ono introduces herself to the two, but is cut by Himura who hurries to the crime scene. According to Yasoda's preliminary observation, the victim died from haemorrhagic shock as a result of being stabbed at the back. Like the other victims, there was a piece of paper left in her mouth, in which was written "Night Prowler".

Upon investigation, the police find out that "Night Prowler" is a character from a video game called *Screaming Castle*, and crime lab results reveal that the three murders were conclusively performed by the same person. As per the police's instruction, Alice ends up playing the video game all night.

The next day, Himura cancels his class to continue the investigation. He, alongside Nabeshima, Ono, and Sakashita, visits Simbalinx, the software producer of the game, for interrogation. Due to the media's and the police's relation of the game to the recent assaults, its producer and director find it confusing and disappointing to blame a mere game into a heavy speculation such as actual murder. Outside, members of the Shangri-La Crusade stage a rally to express their desire to free their leader, Sanae Moroboshi; Nabeshima and Sakashita try to suppress them.

In her cell, Sanae Moroboshi is being questioned about the subsequent whereabouts of her subordinates, now that she is imprisoned. Meanwhile, Alice meets with Himura after finishing the game, explaining the ending that the player who solves the mystery becomes the next Night Prowler. Himura has yet again another homicidal hallucination similar to his nightmares — this time placing himself as the killer in the recent cases — but Alice snaps him out of it. While walking the streets at sundown, Sada encounters a seemingly weakened and frightened Akemi.

That night, despite not being a Tuesday, a fourth murder victim has been found, identified as Yukie Ōwada. Himura rushes to the crime scene, finding the fourth and final message in her mouth being "Game Over". As Himura tries to deduce what had happened to the fourth case, Ono spots Sada and asks him to be subdued. Himura states that the fourth murder is different from the other three.

Sakashita informs Yukie's brother, Eiji, in the hospital about her demise, while Ono, Himura, and Alice question Yukie's friend, Remi Komuro. Back at headquarters, the team struggles to comprehend how Night Prowler was able to escape them on the night of the fourth crime.

The next morning, they search Yukie's house where they try to uncover clues about her, during which Alice smells bird faeces and apparently finds a trace of a bird cage on top a cabinet. Just then, Himura asks Ono to ask Komuro if Yukie had a bird, to which Komuro answers that the victim had a java sparrow; meanwhile, Sakashita looks for the bird cage which would likely be empty and successfully finds it. Himura pieces the information he has on the case, after which he declares that the crime is not beautiful.

Himura and Alice visit Eiji at the hospital, informing him that his sister was not murdered, but rather committed suicide which she made appear like murder. After she had decided to take her life, he explains she *was* Night Prowler for that certain night, suggesting that another Night Prowler had committed the other three murders. Specifically, Himura concludes that Eiji himself is the first Night Prowler, after Yukie had taken the murder weapon and the final paper from his room. In other words, Yukie had committed the act to cover for her brother's crime and remove suspicion from him, especially given his alibi of being in the hospital at the time of the fourth incident. In the end, Eiji confesses that he merely wanted to know how it feels to combine reality and fiction. Amidst Alice's visible anger, Nabeshima, Ono, and Sakashita arrive to detain the suspect.

At the boarding house, Himura and Alice discuss the recently closed case, while a young man watches the news regarding the Night Prowler assaults, proclaiming that the case is not beautiful.

## Cast of Characters

* Masataka Kubota as Alice Arisugawa
* Katsuhisa Namase as Hisashi Nabeshima
* Yūka as Nozomi Ono
* Mizuki Yamamoto as Akemi Kijima
* Kyoko Hasegawa as Sanae Moroboshi
* Mari Natsuki as Tokie Shinomiya
* Makita Sports as Munenori Yasoda
* Akira Onodera as young man
* Nagisa Matsunaga as Chihiro Shibuya
* Hikaru Horiguchi as Takako Matsuno
* Kazuyuki Matsuzawa as Hiroshi Nanba

### Guest Characters

* Takuma Otō as Yoshinaga
* Mahiro Takasugi as Eiji Ōwada

### Minor Characters

* Kaoru Matsuo as Chisa Mizuo
* Maiko Tomeoku as Julia Kaneko
* Mio Tachibana as Alice's neighbour
* Satoru Matsuo as Sada
* Keiko Shirasu as news reporter
* Ippei Sato as Simbalinx producer
* Akane Kobari as Shiori Yamano
* Wakato Kanematsu as Shangri-La Crusade member