Shachi

**Shachi** (シャチ, *Shachi*) is Fin Fennec's bodyguard and an alumnus of BLUE. He and Ron Kamonohashi used to be classmates.

## Physical description

Shachi has light gray hair with a single red-dyed streak in the middle and black eyes. He wears a dark blue headband with the Union Jack on it. He has three piercings on each ear and black-painted fingernails.

When Shachi was still a student, he had shorter, neatly-cut hair and a fringe. He also did not have the red streak in his hair.

## Biography

### Twin Prison Locked Room Murder Case

After Juntaro Mihane's corpse is discovered in the Moon Prison seven years after his disappearance and ten years after someone was mysteriously murdered in the Sun Prison, Shachi and Fin Fennec head to the Okutama Mountains in Japan to investigate the case.

There, they meet Amamiya and Totomaru Isshiki of the Metropolitan Police Department as well as Ron Kamonohashi. A cloaked Fin tells Amamiya that she will take over the investigation which enrages an officer who asks if she and Shachi are from the FBI or Interpol. Shachi scolds him for being rude to Fin. Then, Fin shows her detective license and says that she looks forward to working with Amamiya before she takes off her hood. Amamiya and Ron respectively recognize her as the world's expert on locked room studies and BLUE's locked room instructor.

While Fin talks with Amamiya about the case, Shachi approaches Ron and Toto as he has recognized Ron as his old classmates, though Ron did not recognize him. Shachi re-introduces himself, and Fin joins them. Ron tells her that Totomaru will compete with her to solve the Moon Prison's mystery which shocks Shachi, but Fin is uninterested. She informs him that she has heard of the rumor about him and illegal investigations and states that she will punish him without hesitation if she sees a sign of the rumor being true.

Shachi then inquires of Ron what he is doing here, and Ron says that he was offering sweets to the officers. Just when Shachi asks if he has any for him, Fin walks away and he hurries to catch up to her. However, she stops not long afterward and tells Toto and Ron that she has changed her mind about the competition and accepts it. Because Toto already examined the prison and questioned the family, Fin goes to inspect the Moon Prison, and Shachi comes to her assistance. She touches its door and walls, and Shachi helps her to reach and touch the ceiling as well. She notices no irregularity until she touches the ash in the fireplace and finds foamed styrol mixed with it. Fin concludes that something was applied in the fireplace and solves the mystery to Ron's and Toto's surprise and amazement.

Fin then gathers everyone to tell them what happened, and Shachi proudly tells everyone that this is the power of the greatest locked room detective in history. She frames her solution as a lecture, asking Amamiya to summarize the facts of the case and then responding to her answer. When Ron tries to interfere, Shachi shuts him up as he should stay out of this. Fin supports this, and when Amamiya asks her to, she proceeds to tell her deductions more concisely:

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.

Fin 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. 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 heads back to the guesthouse where they have been staying, the Moon Lodge. Shachi hurries after her.

Shachi and Fin return to the Moon Prison after Kaji is found dead there. Shortly afterward, Totomaru and Ron arrive as well. Shachi asks what Ron is doing here, and when he replies that he came to bring some sweets as snacks, Shachi is first taken aback, then says that he better has enough for Fin and him too. Meanwhile, Fin went ahead to the prison building. When the others catch up to her, she informs Totomaru that she made sure that nobody entered the prison and that they confirmed Kaji's death by considering his dilated pupils through the window and taking his temperature via thermography. She adds that, judging by the pool of blood, Kaji was likely stabbed after he was tied to the chair. This means that the culprit was with him the room. However, like in the case at the Sun Prison seventy years ago, a brass bar has been mounted to the inside of the door, making it impossible to open and sealing the room from within.

Everyone then helps to thoroughly check the outside of the prison to find proof whether someone entered or exited the building. After they conclude the examination, Fin declares the case a perfect locked room right before Kiyotaka, Youko, and Sakanoue arrive.

Kiyotaka wants to see his uncle's body, but Toto denies him the access. He also 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. This makes Toto believe that Kaji came to Moon Prison to search for evidence, but neither Kiyotaka, Youko, nor Sakanoue say anything about this.

Totomaru then asks Youko if they could break the window, and she agrees. The window is broken and everyone can now enter the prison. Kaji is examined and no drugs are found in his system; this indicates that he was indeed killed inside the prison. Fin and Shachi then scrutinize the room, but except for the brass bar, everything is the same as yesterday.

Fin wants to check the bar for magnetism, but Shachi has forgotten the compass. Ron offers her his, but Shachi insists that Fin only uses the tools he prepares for her. Fin asks Ron why he, a sweetsmonger, is carrying a compass. Before he can answer though, Sakanoue yells through the window at Shachi, Ron, Fin, and Toto, saying that it is their fault that Kaji died because they did not arrest the culprit yesterday. Toto wholeheartedly apologizes to her; they only focused on solving the mystery, not apprehending the culprit, and now, another life was lost and will never come back.

His words open Fin's eyes to her own arrogance and she thanks him for this and says that she will catch the culprit to atone for her shame. She then tells Ron that, according to her father's words, someone is only a detective if they solve the mystery; otherwise, they are only a bystander. Thus, as long as she is the one who solves this case, Ron cannot be considered a detective and can stay and help with the investigation, but only for this case. Ron notes that while it is generous, this means that Fin will be too focused on the case to bother with him.

While Fin takes Ron's compass to check the brass bar and learns that it is not magnetic, Ron declares that he will solve the case "his" way then.

Afterward, Fin and Toto gather Youko, Kiyotaka, and Sakanoue to question them. Fin apologizes for still not having apprehended the culprit and informs them that the current case is a replica of a seventy-year-old case from England. Kiyotaka immediately realizes that she means the Sun Prison Murder Case and says that Kaji found out about that case when he researched the Moon Prison following Juntaro's disappearance.

Toto says that, just like seventy years ago, the prison door was sealed with a brass bar from inside. It is possible that it was stored somewhere until now because of its good condition and asks Sakanoue, Kiyotaka, and Youko whether they have any ideas about that. When Youko ponders what to say, Kiyotaka yells at her that she is a coward and Sakanoue becoming senile; because of that, Kaji pushed everyone around and did what he wanted. Kiyotaka then reveals that the bar was stored in the shed at their home. Hearing this, Fin tells them they are all suspects as they all had access to the bar. Youko starts to panic at her words and sinks shaking to the ground; Sakanoue tends to her.

Shachi, Fin, Toto, and Ron then talk about how they will proceed. Fin and Shachi will go to the shed with Kiyotaka while Ron wants to stay behind to search the prison again because Fin only confirmed that nothing is there physically speaking. When she hears this, she remarks that one of her students said that once, and Ron tells her that was him. Fin also addresses the Bloody Field Trip Case; she has concerns about it as it was a locked room case. However, before she can talk further about this, an officer informs her that the car going to the Mihane estate is ready. She and Shachi then leave.

When Fin and Shachi return, Fin says that there were no clues in the shed and they have to start anew. Ron then announces that he has solved the case, and Fin stares at him.

Shachi, Fin, Amamiya, Kiyotaka, Youko, and Sakanoue gather in front of the Moon Prison to hear Toto inform everyone about the trick behind Kaji's murder: 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. Until yesterday, when she clutched her hands, her right hand had been on top, not it was her left one. Sakanoue claims that she burned her hand when a pot boiled over, but Youko points out she said she never made a cooking mistake in thirty years. Sakanoue then replies that she has no motive to kill Juntaro and Kaji.

Amamiya says she cannot see a motive, but Ron can: Sakanoue was trying to protect Youko. She cooks meals with many vegetables and hides her treats because she worries about her mistress' fragile health. Youko defends Sakanoue, saying that she would never considers that. Then, Sakanoue confesses. Totomaru points out that she only looked out for Youko though, not Kiyotaka because she does not care about what he eats, and asks why.

Sakanoue tells everyone that she promised Youko's mother to protect her daughter. Youko's mother did not like Juntaro as she realized he would only bring trouble, and because Sakanoue felt indebted to her mistress as she saved her life when she was young, she agreed to take care of Youko. Juntaro had been squandering the Mihane fortune for his religious group, and Kaji had tried to pin his brother's murder on Youko and Kiyotaka to get his hands on the fortune. Sakanoue had to kill them to protect Youko and the fortune; she imitated the Sun Prison Murder Case because she hoped if she copied an unsolved murder, her murder would never be solved too. She also learned about Curie temperature on television and created the bar in case she ever needed it.

And although she was caught, Sakanoue is happy because she could fulfill her promise to protect Youko. She will die soon anyway; with her promise fulfilled, she can face her first mistress in heaven. Youko remarks that Sakanoue must have really gone senile but Kiyotaka replies this is not just senility.

Later, Fin tells Totomaru that he solved the case well. He thanks her and adds that he has no evidence to prove there was a magnet in the bar though. Fin replies that he does not have to worry about this: She and Shachi took an x-ray of the bar and confirmed the magnet's presence inside it because Fin had actually solved the case before Ron did. Then, Shachi and Fin set out to leave. Ron wants to talk to them, but he faints beforehand.

A few days later, while Shachi and Fin are waiting for their flight home, they are approached by Ron and Toto. Ron tells Fin he solved the Sun Prison Murder Case. She remarks it is a convincing solution; if they were at BLUE, she would give him 90% for it. However, because he has no physical evidence, it cannot be accepted as an official solution.

Fin then recites one of her father's sayings: "There's no sin in a heart that seeks the truth." Because he risked his life to get involved in a case in front of a BLUE instructor and even followed her to the airport, Fin knows that Ron not solely did all that just to solve the case. He wants something else, and she is willing to hear him out.

Ron tells Fin that he is gathering information about the Bloody Field Trip Case and asks why she is also interested in that case. Shachi recognizes the case as the one that proved that Ron is a "psycho." Totomaru is about to defend Ron, but Ron tells him that it is fine.

Fin says she is interested in the case for two reasons: First because it is a locked room case as only Ron could enter or leave the crime scene. Second because of Aimee Emmerich's unusuals actions. Last years, Fin was running an errand close to the Bloody Field Trip crime scene and decided to stop by; Shachi is surprised to hear this as she never told him. Fin saw Emmerich entering the hideout and noticed someone trailing after the principal: It was Dr. Hirsch, the anatomy instructor. She confronted him about his presence, and he claimed he wanted to check if he had not left anything at a crime scene he had worked on. When he saw Emmerich, he was surprised and stuck around without calling out to her. According to Fin, she checked the documents and learned that Hirsch had nothing to do with the Bloody Field Trip though as he was not in England at that time. That is everything Fin knows. She adds that this changes nothing and that the case is settled. Then, Shachi and Fin leave to get to their plane; Shachi is very excited about that.

### Coin and Carving Murders Case

Shachi and Fin solve the mystery of an ancient pyramid's locked room.

## Relationships

### Fin Fennec

Shachi is Fin's bodyguard. He started to work for her family while he was still a student at BLUE.

He is very devoted to Fin whom he calls "Madame" (お嬢, *ojō*, here: Young Lady) and dislikes it when someone is rude to her. Shachi frequently praises her and her skills, and while Fin seems to appreciate his assistance, she sometimes reprimands him due his excessive praising and lively nature.

## References and notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 52, page 6
2. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 87, page 21
3. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 92, pages 14-15
4. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 83, page 13
5. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 51, pages 3-7
6. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 51, pages 15-19
7. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 52, pages 5-18
8. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 53, pages 2-13
9. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 54, pages 2-19
10. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 55, pages 1-10
11. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 55, pages 17-18
12. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 56, pages 2-21
13. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 57, pages 2-9
14. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 63, pages 4-5
15. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 51, page 17
16. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 52, page 8

1. ↑ Shachi does not use the term with the honorific "-san" (お嬢さん, *ojōsan*). Without it, お嬢 simply means in a respectful manner "(someone else's) daughter."