Alice Arisugawa

*This article is about the in-series character. For the real-world person of the same name, see Alice Arisugawa (real world).*

## Appearance

### Debut

*Rinshō Hanzai Gakusha Himura Hideo no Suiri* episode 1

## Personal Information

### Occupation

Mystery writer

**Alice Arisugawa** (有栖川 (ありすがわ)  有栖 (ありす) , *Arisugawa Arisu*) is a mystery writer and Hideo Himura's closest peer, inadvertently being the latter's "assistant" whenever the Kyoto Prefectural Police enlist their help during bizarre cases. Alice also asserts himself as Himura's protector who keeps him at bay from succumbing to his dark and ominous reveries.

## Background

Alice studied in the Department of Sociology at Eito University. In 2004, he first met Hideo Himura during a class while Alice was writing a manuscript. Himura read the manuscript initially without Alice knowing until Himura expressed his anticipation towards his classmate's work. As gratitude for making him read the manuscript, Himura treated Alice with some curry at the school cafeteria. As they conversed over lunch, the two soon developed a close friendship.

Few days later, Alice invited Himura to come over at his friend's house with his other peers, namely Yukihiko Katahira, Naho Sasayama, Takashi Otomo, and Seitaro Okasaki. Alice's friends became interested at the thought of meeting Himura, whom they had always known to be almost a recluse at university. Himura arrived late due to a slight incident, and he later solved a "case" involving the group.

## Plot

### Hotel Cadenza Homicide

*Main article: Murder of Julia Kaneko*

In the middle of the night, Alice writes a novel at his flat. As the police request for Himura's aid at an investigation, the latter contacts Alice, and the two go to Hotel Cadenza in Kyoto, where a murder has occurred.

They find the corpse of Julia Kaneko, a show assistant of spiritual artist Nick Hallelujah, who was murdered in the Nick'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 during the incident. Having found Nick's fingerprints on the murder weapon, he is made as the prime suspect for the case, despite his denial of their allegations.

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. Alice interjects intermittently, though Himura rejects his suggestions to how the case occurred. In the end, Himura apparently solves the case and claims that the trick behind the locked-room mystery is Nick's "spirit magic", which is a thin transparent wire he often uses for his shows. He deduces that Julia, erstwhile dead, was pulled from outside the door using said wire by the culprit from across the room, whom Himura identifies to be Yoshinaga. With this conclusion, Himura and Alice excuse themselves from the scene. Outside, Himura tells Alice that the crime was not beautiful.

### Night Prowler Assaults

*Main article: Night Prowler Assaults*
Three days after the homicide case, Alice discusses with his editor on the phone about his recent novels. Himura's landlady, Tokie Shinomiya, voices out her admiration for the mystery writer's works. Later, Himura arrives. As Alice and Himura converse about the recent random street assaults, the police contact Himura and Alice to aid in the investigation of a third murder in the series of killings.

Detective Nozomi Ono introduces herself to the two, but is cut by Himura who hurries to the crime scene. Alice exchanges pleasantries with Ono instead, telling her a little about how Himura solves cases using his own methods and perspective as a "clinical criminologist".

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, able to sleep the next day after finishing the game with quite some difficulty.

Later, 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.

That night, despite not being a Tuesday, a fourth murder victim has been found, identified as Yukie Ōwada. Himura and Alice rush to the crime scene, finding the fourth and final message in her mouth being "Game Over". After Himura tries to deduce what had happened to the fourth case, he states that the fourth murder is different from the other three.

The following day, Alice, Ono, and Himura visit and question Yukie's friend, Reimi Komuro. As they head back at headquarters, the team struggles to comprehend how Night Prowler was able to escape them on the night of the fourth crime.

They then search Yukie's residence where they try to uncover clues about her, during which Alice smells bird faeces and apparently finds a faint 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 and finds a bird cage below the room's window. Himura pieces the information he has on the case, after which Alice hears him state that the crime is not beautiful.

Alice and Himura visit Eiji back 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 summary, 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.

Back at the boarding house, Tokie serves the two some dango, while Himura and Alice discuss the recently closed case. It is also revealed that, like Himura, Alice has a recurring nightmare of being unable to save Himura, who jumps off the edge of a cliff.

## References

1. ↑ *Detective, Blue Era*
2. ↑ *Screaming Castle Murder Case*