Night Baron Murder Case

The Case
At a beach in Izu, Conan mentally grumbles about being stuck outside of Tokyo when he should be looking for Gin and Vodka until Ran convinces him to come swimming with her. However, when they check into their hotel, the reservations Agasa turned over to them has a catch; it's only half paid for. Agasa signed up for a "mystery tour"; if Conan can figure out who of the ten guests in the tour is the sponsor, the other half of the reservation will be covered and he will also receive a certain computer program. Before Conan can remember what Agasa said was the sponsor's name, Kogoro is asked by another hotel patron if he is the "Night Baron"—a character from Yusaku Kudo's novels. Kogoro reacts with confusion, and the man records the reaction as part of his dataset for determining who is the Night Baron, the alias the tour sponsor.

The man is Shiro Konno, a banker. His methods are derided by Tokio Ebara, a slightly drunk computer programmer who is another participant. Genichirou Kaneshiro, a computer company CEO, defends the method, backed by his lady butler, Shizue Hayashi. He defends his own slow response to Konno's question as having poor eyesight and didn't know the question was at him. Konno is satisfied with his data, but Hideko Kamijo, another computer company CEO, turns his question back on himself. Kogoro is still confused by the conversation and who the "Night Baron" is; though Ran explains, Kogoro remains uninterested and return to the hotel room. Conan realizes that two people from the group of ten are missing at the same time Ebara tries to grope and flirt with Ran. Before Ran can defend herself, another man stops Ebara; she recognizes him as Satoru Maeda, a karate champion who inspired Ran to start karate in the first place.

Ran's minor fangirling is interrupted by the arrival of Maeda's fiancé, Akiko Sayama, a high school teacher who responds coldly to Ran's admiration. Hideko mentions her surprise that Ran and Conan's group are different from expected; Ran explains they came in Agasa's stead, and that Kogoro is a detective, which shocks all present. Afterwards, the group disperses, but Conan feels the gaze of someone watching him intently, though he can't pinpoint the source. In the hotel room, Conan explains the terms of the mystery tour, which Kogoro is determined he can solve. He leaves to investigate, but Conan ponders at the extreme level of reaction from people involved in what should be simply a game-puzzle. Ran also leaves the hotel room, letting Conan stand on the outside balcony and ponder what Agasa meant when he said the other prize was a computer program that Conan wouldn't find very useful. Conan plans to call Agasa after dinner, but suddenly the room door opens behind Conan—it's the Night Baron himself, and before Conan can react, he throws Conan over the balcony! Luckily, Conan falls straight into the hotel pool. When he races back to the balcony, Night Baron is gone, but Conan can't see any sort of clue toward the group sponsor's identity from an action like that. Conan is also concerned that the program prize might be the culprit, but Agasa can only remember that the program is one of secrecy and may be a virus. Before Conan can ask more, Ran interrupts the phone call and asks how Conan got soaked. Conan lies that he slipped and fell so that Ran won't insist they leave until he can find the Night Baron's identity.

Later at dinner, Ran and Conan find Kogoro already sitting with Maeda and Akiko. Ran warns Akiko about Evara, who is watching them with a perverted grin. Over dinner, Akiko reveals that she loves both Yusaku and the Night Baron, even cutting her hair to match the Baron's. Hideko walks by in a sexy dress and mentions that Akiko isn't the only one to know about the Night Baron; Ran and Akiko get angry that Kogoro and Maeda watch her go, while Conan notices that Ebara completely ignores Hideko. Conan also notices Kaneshiro alone at a table, and asks if Kaneshiro is after the computer virus and how he knows so much about it. Kaneshiro answers that anyone familiar with computers knows about a perfectly destructive, elusive virus, also named Night Baron. Kaneshiro seems to associate the Night Baron with his son, who died four years ago. Shizue's arrival prevents any more questions, but after Conan leaves Kaneshiro tells Shizue they must be careful because of Conan's suspicions.

On his way back, Conan overhears Konno, on the phone, say that Ebara is a particular hacker. However, Conan can't learn anything else. Back at the tables, Conan realizes Ebara is gone; a waitress asks Conan to return the tie Ebara had tied around his forehead while drinking. Before Conan can do more than take the tie, Ran remonstrates Conan for wandering off and drags him back to their room. Surprisingly, Kogoro isn't in their room, but Maeda and Akiko are down the hall—Akiko refuses to let Maeda in for staring at the waitress at dinner. He decides to wait in the top floor lounge until she calms down, and invites Ran to come along. Conan follows along and gets between Ran and Maeda when he tries to flirt a little. Ran asks how Maeda and Akiko met; Maeda was friends with Akiko's older brother, who died three years ago.

Downstairs in the hotel bar, Hideko attempts to convince Kogoro to share who the Night Baron's identity is, first by flirting and then by slipping something into his drink. Kogoro doesn't notice. After a while, Maeda decides to head back to Akiko and comments that Conan is like Ran's "little bodyguard". Conan asks if Maeda knows what a virus is, but Maeda only thinks it relates to having a cold rather than computers. Conan ponders why a virus that seems able to steal money from banks and large companies, among other things, would be promised by the sponsor to gather these participants. As he does, outside the hotel, someone dressed as Night Baron falls from somewhere high up in the hotel. The unlucky victim is impaled on a statue in the dining courtyard.

The Suspicion
Conan and Ran hear about the death of someone "in a mask" and go to look. Conan slips through the police barrier only to be stopped by Inspector Yokomizo, who was recently transferred from Saitama to Shizuoka. While Yokomizo explains this to Ran, Conan sneaks the mask off to reveal Ebara. Ran recognizes him and explain the tour to Yokomizo while Conan discovers Ebara only has one glove on, and his costume's tie tied backwards. Yokomizo assumes Ebara was the sponsor but wonders whether the death is suicide or accident and asks where Kogoro is. Hideko tells them he's still in the bar, but stays to look at the body; Conan realizes that behind her sunglasses, she is crying.

In the bar, Ran wakes Kogoro up and they all go to Ebara's room. The anti-theft lock is in place from the inside and only when an officer arrives with a handsaw to cut it are they able to enter the room. Ebara's clothes from early and even his room key are on the floor just inside. The sliding door to the balcony is open, and a glove is stuck in the base of the bars. Kogoro assumes Ebara died trying to scare the occupants of the room below, but Conan points out that on the 21st floor, Ebara would probably have used rope, and needed his room key to get back in. Kogoro smacks Conan in annoyance, causing Conan's fountain pen to fall to the ground below, and leaves with Yokomizo to examine the body.

On the ground, Conan tries unsuccessfully to find his pen around the statue. The other tour participants gather around to learn what happened. Kaneshiro calls it a poor story for the Night Baron to die, and it ends the game. Conan gives him a suspicious look, and abruptly calls attention to the backwards necktie. Kogoro thinks it could be a habit, but Conan produces Ebara's other necktie, which is tied normally. The belt is also backwards, leading Kogoro and Yokomizo to conclude that Ebara was murdered by one of the rest of the group. They start the process to question the others for their alibis.

Ran and Conan provide Maeda's alibi; Hideko reminds Kogoro she was with him, but Conan points out Kogoro was drunk. Shizue and Kaneshiro claim there were in the restaurant together, but with the chaos of the strange death no one may remember them. Konno claims he was reading emails and tells them to check the hotel's internet access logs, but he doesn't have a live person's alibi. Akiko was watching TV until Maeda returned and so has no alibi either. Meanwhile, in the room with Ebara's body, someone attacks the police officer on guard. After questioning, Akiko returns with Ran and Conan to their floor and complains that Kogoro and Yokomizo probably suspect her. While Conan ponders the overall lack of solid alibis and the unknown intent of the killer, Akiko tells Ran that she called the front desk for a wakeup call but didn't think it was important enough to mention. Ran says Akiko should be in the clear just as the elevator door opens—to reveal the Night Baron, bloody mask and all, standing just outside.

After an initial reaction of shock, Ran immediately attacks Night Baron with a powerful karate kick, but somehow the Night Baron dodges and runs away. Conan tries to get her to chase, but Ran and Akiko are both stunned into immobility until it's too late. They go to tell Kogoro what happened, and also learn that the costume was stolen from Ebara's body but has now—hat, mask, wig, and cape—suddenly appeared in the pool. Conan wonders if this appearance was unplanned while the police question everyone again and learn that everyone was staying in their room as instructed, so no one has an alibi. Even Maeda is unconfirmed, since they came straight back down without going to Akiko and Maeda's room. The rooms are searched, starting with theirs; Conan notes from the balcony that they are a bit below and to the right of Ebara's room. He notes the position, annoyed that he lost his high-quality fountain pen, while inside Yokomizo finds some sleeping pills belonging to Akiko but nothing suspicious.

In Kaneshiro and Shizue's room, Conan sees that Ebara's room was directly above, but it's difficult to make notes with all the wind rushing by. Kogoro is annoyed by Conan's presence until Conan says he's studying Kogoro's detective skills. Kaneshiro mentions that Kanno has reasons to want the virus after having tampered with computers at his own bank. However, in his own room, Kanno says Kaneshiro hates the Night Baron because his son died as a result of "a virus". Kanno's room was closest to Ebara's, but impossible to reach from Ebara's balcony. Kanno also says that Hideko was Ebara's wife, which she reluctantly confirms but that she divorced him after she discovered he was a computer hacker. She also mentioned that Akiko's older brother used to have a small software company—everyone has a motive.

Conan notices pills just like Akiko's; Hideko gets flustered when he asks about them, and says they're cold pills. Conan doesn't get the chance to check her window, but she is directly above Konno, leaving Kaneshiro and Shizue's room as the only room reachable from Ebara's balcony. As he consults his sketch-map, he passes two officers looking at the remains of the anti-theft lock and finds scotch tape stuck to the tip, a shocking revelation.

The Resolution
In their hotel room, Ran sits miserably on the bed with the knowledge that only a certain person could have blocked her kick the way Night Baron did. Unsure what to do with the knowledge, she wishes for Shinichi to tell her what to do. A knock on the door interrupts her; she opens the door as far as the anti-theft lock allows to find Conan, who declares his experiment successful because she didn't close the lock herself. He notices her face and asks if she was crying, but she passes it off as yawning and Conan runs off again. He ends up in the same elevator as the two policeman, and as he ponders the suspects he overhears that the officer who was guarding Ebara's body and overpowered was himself a strong practitioner of karate. Like Ran earlier, Conan suddenly wonders if the identity of Night Baron may, in fact, be karate champion Satoru Maeda. But Ran confirms that Maeda has a perfect alibi because he was giving autographs to his fans. So Conan dismisses him as a killer and still wonders who did it. Talking to one of the hotel maids, Conan learns that the wind that blows in this time of the year is a famous one named "Himekaze" aka "Princess Wind", and it blows in a very special direction; thanks to that, he finally figures out who the killer is.

Resolution
« Hide spoilers ====Summary ==== Ebara's killer is Akiko Sayama. Her motive was to avenge the suicide of her beloved older brother from three years ago. Ebara had hacked into her brother's company's records and stolen the program into which he'd invested every penny of his company, driving him to leap from a building to his death. To get revenge, Akiko organized the contest and lured Ebara into participating by pretending to have the legendary Night Baron Virus.

Additionally, she disguised herself as the Night Baron for two reasons. She attacked Conan with the intention of scaring Kogoro back home before the murder occurred to prevent his involvement in the investigation. Akiko also planned to justify Ebara's fall in the costume by tricking the other participants and police into thinking that Ebara was the contest sponsor and died by mishap while trying to cause trouble as the Night Baron.

Satoru Maeda, Akiko's boyfriend, realized Akiko was the murderer, stole the Night Baron disguise from the police, and appeared in front of Ran and Akiko in order to give Akiko an alibi and take blame for her if the police discovered her trick.

Exposition
After dinner, Akiko called Ebara up to her room, implying that she would give him the Night Baron Virus. Once he arrived, she drugged him to make him fall asleep, went to his room to plant the glove Kogoro found stuck to the balcony and create a room locked from the inside, and then put the rest of the Night Baron outfit on him (minus the unnecessary wig) before she threw him off the building. While landing on the statue was a fluke, having Ebara's body land in the area beneath his room's balcony was her goal. In order to conceal the fact that Ebara was in her room, she dropped his body out the window closest to his balcony, which happened to be sheltered from the "Princess Wind" that was blowing outside. This way, it seems like Ebara locked himself in his room, changed into the costume, and attempted to descend into the room below (the room occupied by Genichirou and Shizue) in order to cause more mischief, only to slip and fall to his death.

However, Akiko's plan backfired. She failed to factor in the force of the "Princess Wind" that was blowing at the time of the murder and continues to blow similarly all the time. Conan, as Sleeping Kogoro, had the police drop several rolled futons from each suspect's room, each futon carrying weights to give them approximately the same weight as a person and a sheet tied around them to act like Night Baron's cape (as well as the number of the room they were dropped from written on them for identification). Thanks to the force of the "Princess Wind" and the cape catching that wind, none of the futons landed beneath any of their respective balconies. In other words, if Ebara had fallen from his own balcony, the wind would have blown him to the right of the statue rather than on top of it. The only way to make Ebara's body land beneath his own balcony in spite of the wind was, as demonstrated by Conan and the police, to drop his body in an area of the hotel that would shield it from the wind, an area that is only accessible from a room below the 20th floor of the hotel. With the suspect list in mind, Ebara could only have fallen from room 1901, Akiko and Maeda's room.

The Night Baron that appeared before Ran and Akiko, however, was Satoru Maeda, who had no connection to the murder. After noticing a few anomalies about Ebara's body, he began to suspect Akiko and went through her luggage. He found the Night Baron wig in her suitcase ― she had originally intended to include it with the rest of the costume she placed on Ebara, but she didn't need it since Ebara's hair already looked the part. With proof in hand, he realized his girlfriend's plans and made his own plan to divert attention away from her so she wouldn't go to jail. The first part was to not reveal the alibi that he did have, as to not create inconsistencies within any possible confession he may have to make. The second was to steal the costume and appear in front of Akiko and someone else, creating a phony alibi for Akiko; stealing the costume proves there's only one costume, and only one costume would lead people to believe there's only one Night Baron, which couldn't be Akiko.

After Akiko is accused, Maeda insists that he's the real killer, but Ran tracks down his alibi to clear his name, and Conan via Kogoro present the phone call Akiko made to the front desk from her room to prove she was at the scene of the crime when Ebara was thrown to his death. Maeda is also convicted, but for interfering with the investigation and the offenses that came with it, and is likely to get a lighter sentence due to the circumstances of his crimes and his own good behavior beforehand. Before being taken away, Akiko bitterly tells Maeda to forget about her since she's not a good woman; he promises to wait for Akiko's release, however, and despite trying to put on a mask of stoicism, she can't help crying as she's taken away.

Hideko Kamijo, Ebara'a ex-wife, entered the contest because she wanted to make an antivirus for the Night Baron virus. Incidentally, Ebara sold Akiko's brother's program to Kamijo, but she realized that it was a stolen program and stopped its sale. Genichirou Kaneshiro wanted the virus in order to punish the creator for ruining his high school girl dating simulator 4 years ago. Shiro Konno's reason for wanting the virus is unconfirmed, but Kamijo suggested earlier that he had nefarious purposes; Genichirou seemed to concur with Kamijo's analysis, though his agreement came after Konno began sweating bullets over Kamijo's assertion.

Remastered version
A remastered version of the entire case was aired over the span of August 15, 22, and 29, 2009. Instead of editing the episodes and combining them into an hour, all three standalone episodes were remastered.