Distinguished Family's Consecutive Accidental Death Case

Part 1
Kogoro is recommended by someone to a wealthy family for a routine assignment: the very old and sickly leader of the clan, Dousan Nagato, wishes to find his first love before he dies. With the police roaming around the house, though, Conan begins to wonder if that's really all there is to it. His answer comes when suddenly, Heiji Hattori joins the group alongside his father Heizo, an old friend of the chairman who was supposed to take up the case, but recomended Kogoro instead. Bad thing, Heiji calls out to Conan by his actual name of "Shinichi Kudo" (not knowing that Conan hasn't told Ran and Kogoro about his identity), and they have to make up a quick lie to cover up.

Nagato's beautiful secretary, Miyuki Hyuuga, is in the old man's room as well, and she gives Kogoro a brief rundown of the few data they have on the woman he's supposed to find. Her name is Kotomi Akagi, she's from Kanagawa, married a man named Kouhei Yamato and they had a child, but they disappeared mysteriously five years after the kid's birth.

The two daughters of the family, Nobuko and Yasue, come into the old chairman's room. Nobuko seems to really hate Miyuki, so much that when she replies to one of her questions before Nagato does, Nobuko slaps her, mocks her old fountain pen, accuses her of being a gold digger and gets out of the room. The Chairman says she's just cranky since she's in her late 30's and, unlike her little sister and middle brother, she has no suitors; Conan thinks to himself that with such a personality, she'll never marry. Before leaving, Nagato asks Miyuki about someone named Hideomi, and she replies that she and this person are tied by "a destiny made of fire".

Soon, the mysterious Hideomi appears. He's the eldest son of the family, a novelist who covers his face with bandages after having suffered huge burns when he was in highschool, and his looks cause Heiji and Conan to freak out at first; according to Nagato, he could have his face fixed but he doesn't want that. He's joined by Mitsuaki, Yasue's husband and an old family friend; a flippant comment by him causes Hideomi to leave the room angrily, and later he tries to pressure Nagato into giving him more control of the family business. At that moment Heizo excuses himself from the upcoming birthday party, and says Heiji will be able to help Kogoro better.

The family party is a rather small and simple one, and in the middle of it Nagato announces that Miyuki and Hideomi are getting engaged. The reason why the chairman has let Miyuki spend some nights in the house was for her to know the house before moving in. Yasue, the butler Taki and Mitsuaki are pleased, but Nobuko leaves in an irate huff; again, Nagato and Mitsuaki believe it's because this means she'll be the only unmarried one. Hideomi hasn't showed up, however, and Mitsuaki goes look for him.

As everyone's getting ready to retire for the night and Conan fails to get Heiji to tell him the actual reason why he's here, the butler receives a call from Mitsuaki. He tells Nagato that he hasn't been able to find Hideomi, but suddenly he starts screaming and claiming that he's being attacked. The screams come from the room beneath Nagato's and when Kogoro goes to the balcony to see what's going on, he and the others see a person with a bandaged face just like Hideomi's... with a knife in his mouth!

Miyuki stays in the balcony, and everyone else save for Nagato run off to see what's going on. Then they hear Mitsuaki scream again... and few minutes later they find his lifeless body impaled in the fence! Megure, Takagi and a police group arrive to the Nagato mansion, and Kogoro says he's sure Hideomi was both the killer and the bandaged man. Miyuki objects and says Hideomi would never do such a thing, despite Yasue's insistence that her brother is the killer; she adds that Hideomi has commited mistakes in the past, but would never do something like this.

Heiji says that all they saw was someone with a bandaged face, but there's no confirmation on him being Hideomi. They explain the situation to Megure and begin speculating about what could've happened, and soon they interrogate the people around them starting with Miyuki, who explains that she was the last one to leave. Additionally, Conan notices a stabbing wound in Mitsuaki's hand, but the others believe it came from his hand hitting the fence as he fell on it.

The police also gathers evidence like a bloodied knife, bandages and a beanie hat, but there's no trace of Hideomi himself, and for worse no one has left the mansion so it's likely he's still hiding inside. Conan and Heiji realise that Ran and Chairman Nagato are alone in the man's suite and they rush there - and find Nobuko as well, taking care of her sleeping father.

Nobuko says that she was drinking and ranting to a friend over the phone, and isn't surprised at all with the idea of Hideomi being killed by Mitsuaki. She tells them she that expecting it to happen, since they had come to hate each other after being friends from childhood, thanks to a terrible incident... Around 20 years ago, there was a fire in a nearby inn; the highschool-aged Mitsuaki and Hideomi passed by, and despite Mitsuaki's objections, Hideomi went into the burning building to see if there were any survivors. He managed to rescue a little girl, the daughter of the lodge's owners, but in exchange the once very handsome Hideomi was left with heavy scars on half his face, leading him to shut himself off the world and write his novels in his studio. She finishes the tale by revealing that the little girl is Miyuki Hyuga whom she again accuses of being a gold digger who had been taking advantage of Hideomi's frail mental state to seduce him and ultimately marry into the very rich Nagato family.

Nagato wakes up and tells Nobuko to stop. After his declaration is taken and the old man has a small emotional/physical crisis, Conan finally gets Heiji to spill out the beans: the "childhood love" issue is just an excuse from Nagato to call up the Hattoris and Kogoro, since in reality many odd things have been going on in the mansion (noises, lost things, etc.). Heiji's father at first wondered if there were thieves around, but now a murder has taken place, and Heiji thinks it's someone in the family. He and Conan also observe that the evidence was obtained too easily and soon, and believe that the real culprit is trying to frame Hideomi for the murder of Mitsuaki.

On the second day of searching, Nobuko and Miyuki have a fight about Hideomi; Nobuko thinks Miyuki is implying that Hideomi didn't want to marry before his eldest sister did, and she gets so angry that she slaps Miyuki again, almost knocking her into a nearby abandoned fountain. This causes her fountain pen (the last present that she got from her parents) to fall in the pond, and Miyuki desperately gets inside to retrieve it despite how dangerous it can be. The water of the pond is drained, and Hideomi's lifeless corpse is found there.

Part 2
Hideomi's corpse is pulled out of the water, and Yasue mourns him heavily. The forensic expert says Hideomi's been dead for at least two days, so Megure thinks that he might have killed Mitsuaki and drowned himself immediately afterwards. There's a flaw in that theory, however: Hideomi's death was caused by poisoning, NOT by drowning. Since there were many stones in his pockets, they wonder if Hideomi first took poison and then threw himself in the pond, the stones pulling his body to the bottom so he wouldn't found. Nobuko adds that, by the time Mitsuaki married Yasue, Hideomi never managed to see him as his brother-in-law, even when he didn't openly object to their marriage.

A letter is found in Hideomi's clothes, and it's a suicide note directed to his girlfriend Miyuki. It's a short one, where he apologizes for not being able to marry her after his sins and says only death can cleanse him. The cops bring more evidence: they found some strands of Hideomi's hair in the bag, the blood in the knife matches Mitsuaki's, and the big stab in Mitsuaki's corpse matches the knife blade.

Miyuki offers to go look for Hideomi's papers to compare the handwriting and somberly goes inside the house, ignoring how Ran offers her the pen. Nobuko tearfully says that Miyuki has only brought misfortune to the Nagatos and again calls her gold digger, but Ran goes look for her; she, Conan and Heiji find Miyuki kneeling on the door to Hideomi's studio, sobbing her heart out. The boys convince Ran to leave her alone and Heiji says he'll give her the pen later; she isn't convinced, but gives in and Heiji is surprised at both how old it is and at another detail something else.

Once Heiji and Conan are alone, they comment on how nothing really makes sense: Hideomi's actions contradict themselves, and for worse the suicide note is very ambiguous. They wonder if Hideomi was first forced to write it and then killed, but they decide against it as the pond looked almost completely untouched until they got there.

Heiji interrogates the guards and they tell him that no, no one has left the grounds; one of them, however, says that Mitsuaki approached them right before the birthday party and his own death, telling them to look for Hideomi and then hanging around the pond. In the meantime, Conan goes ask the household staff and specially the cooks: they say that Hideomi would lock himself in his studio to write and ate very few, but lately his appetite was better and he was more docile than usual when his sister Yasue helped him change his bandages. They also tell him that one of his bedsheets is missing..

Heiji and Conan check on the balconies, and notice odd marks on their bottoms. Then they get into Nobuko's room when she's not there, and Conan answers a phone call (using his bowtie to sound like Nobuko) that confirms her alibi. They manage to sneak into Hideomi's room, full of unused and dust-covered books, and listen to the messages in his telephone - which get them back on their tracks.

Checking on Mitsuaki and Yasue's room, the boys find more things... but then Ran and Miyuki come on in, and they're almost found out. Heiji quickly sends Ran to a nearby convenience store and before taking off with Conan, they say that in one hour, everyone should gather in Miyuki's room. Soon they 'tranquilize' Kogoro to use him to expose the case, but when Conan snoops aroud looking for the last piece, he checks on something else and turns somber.

Resolution
« Hide spoilersWhen everyone is gathered in Miyuki's bedroom, Conan-as-Kogoro announces that he's found out who killed Mitsuaki AND placed Hideomi's body into the pond. The phone rings and Conan/Kogoro tells him to pick it up... The one at the other side if Heiji, who says he's in the room below and suddenly begins to yell that someone is attacking him.

Megure decides to go help Heiji, but Conan/Kogoro says the killer drew everyone outside the room by fooling them into thinking there was a murderer downstairs. Soon, a person with a bandaged face climbs up the balcony - and it's Heiji. He says that the call, the knife and the bloody bandages were actually used by Mitsuaki in an attempt to frame Hideomi. As added touches, Mitsuaki's blood was spilled by himself on the bandages, having taken some of it out with a syringe, and he put on a swimming cap under the beanie hat to not get his hair in it. All of this evidence was found in Mitsuaki and Yasue's suite, and was a plan by Mitsuaki Nagato to kill his father-in-law and frame Hideomi for it.

Heiji and Conan/Kogoro add that Mitsuaki didn't act alone, but had an accomplice who would keep everyone downstairs while he killed Nagato; said accomplice, however, turned on him. And their identity? Miyuki Hyuga, who pushed him off the balcony and killed him. They added that Mitsuaki didn't mean to use the knife; his killing weapon would've been the grappling hook, which he'd use to strangle Nagato to death, and which Miyuki had used in secret in other balconies (source of the noises heard in the last days, and the marks on the underside of the balconies. Nobuko didn't notice, surely since she was drunk, but Nagato did and that's why he called the Hattoris and Kogoro.

Megure asks if Miyuki also murdered Hideomi. Conan/Kogoro says that no, she didn't: Mitsuaki was her only target and victim, and the letter was truly by Hideomi - who wrote it before he commited suicide, which took place before Mitsuaki's death. Hideomi's body wasn't placed inside the pond right away, but was buried for some time by Miyuki and Mitsuaki, who used some holes in the garden for that. Mitsuaki also took Hideomi's body, wrapped it in the lost bedsheet so it wouldn't be seen and put it in the pond, which is when he was spotted by the guards. The "Hideomi" that was seen in the two days up to the murder was either Miyuki or Mitsuaki, wearing his clothes and covering their faces with his bandages and eating his food.

Ran objects to all of this, specially when Conan/Kogoro says Miyuki lured Mitsuaki with a plan to kill Nagato and frame Hideomi, since Hideomi saved her as a child. Instead of replying, Conan/Kogoro asks Miyuki where's her watch, and before she can reply he says she lost it when Mitsuaki tried to grab her arm before being pushed off the balcony. As a corollary, they mention the stab wound Mitsuaki had in his hand... coming from Miyuki stabbing him so he'd release her, and doing so with her old fountain pen. Heiji claims that he tried to use the pen before giving it back to Miyuki, but the tip was bent and unusable - which surely happened when she used it to stab Mitsuaki's hand and make him plummet to his death.

Heiji says that Miyuki's reason to do all of this is because the fire that destroyed her family's inn 20 years ago, killed her parents and disfigured Hideomi... was actually caused by Hideomi and Mitsuaki. (Which also explained why Hideomi refused to fix his face through plastic surgery, surely for the guilt he felt for what he had done to Miyuki and her family). If there had been more to the suicide note where Hideomi confessed to have started the fire, which would be the crime, he killed himself to atone for, along with Mitsuaki, that would give Miyuki motive to Mitsuaki and framed Hideomi. He and Conan/Kogoro speculate that Miyuki provoked Nobuko into beating her up near the pond, so Hideomi's corpse would be found.

When everything is revealed, Miyuki says that she did it because she didn't want to leave her beloved Hideomi alone in the cold water. Then, Miyuki grabs the thermos that Conan had seen around and her lighter, intending to join Hideomi in death. She confirms what Heiji and Conan/Kogoro had said, admitting that she couldn't forgive Mitsuaki (for being so flippant about his and Hideomi's murder of her parents) and Hideomi (for not confessing his part in the murder itself) but adding that she still fell in love with Hideomi despite what he did, since he saved her as a little girl and then dedicated what was left of his life to be kind to her and helping her... but when she asked him to marry her he couldn't resist his guilt anymore and commited suicide, leaving her alone. She concludes that now it's time for her to join Hideomi.

Miyuki's suicide attempt fails because Conan and Heiji had tampered with the thermos and its contents. She has a screaming breakdown, crying and shouting about how she wants her fire to burn like Hideomi's did so she can die with her beloved, and has to be restrained. As she cries and calls out for Hideomi, Heiji asks Conan why didn't he let Miyuki kill herself like she wished; Conan says that's because a detective who doesn't stop a suspect's suicide is not better than a murderer, and then recalls the Moonlight Sonata case and how he couldn't stop Seiji Asou from joining his family in death.

Chairman Nagato arrives to the scene, and speaks to Miyuki to talks out of suicide by saying that her mother wouldn't do such things if she was alive. He says that the fountain pen Miyuki treasures so much is actually something he gave to Miyuki's dead mother, the aforementioned Kotomi Yamato nèe Akagi, who surely gave it to her husband Kouhei at some point. He adds that Miyuki is still young and full of life, so she should live for both Kotomi's and Hideomi's sake...

In the nearby train station, Conan tells Heiji that he had deduced the bond between Miyuki's mom and Chairman Nagato almost at the start, as well as how he saw Miyuki as a surrogate daughter. Heiji is mad because Conan didn't tell him and again calls him Kudo - and this time, almost in front of Ran.

Manga to anime changes
Main article: List of differences between the manga and anime*In the anime, Miyuki doesn't make references to Hideomi's "mistakes from the past". She also says how everyone thought they had seen Hideomi but in reality they only saw a person with a bandaged face who could or could have not been him (whereas Heiji does this in the manga).
 * In the manga, Conan replaced the gasoline that the killer intended to use by emptying the geyser. In the anime, he replaced the gasoline with water.

Trivia

 * Conan makes a reference to his past failure to stop a suicide in "Moonlight Sonata Murder Case" when telling Heiji that letting a person commit suicide when it can be stopped is the same as killing the person oneself.