Chapter Summaries

Jiang Xia and Hattori Heiji cleared up the mistaken suspicion that Amuro Tooru had abducted Jiang Xia, while Hattori tried to conceal his own failed police ambush. The group returned to the haunted house, where they found the plainclothes officers trapped among the bandages they had removed from a prop Zombie.

• Jiang Xia let Hattori Heiji realize that he had mistaken the police officers' attack on Amuro Tooru for an attempt to kidnap Jiang Xia.
• Jiang Xia explained that he had left his phone in the car because of the client's confidentiality demands, and Amuro Tooru said they were searching for a suicidal person.
• Hattori Heiji switched the haunted house lights back on, disabled the Signal Jammer, and hurried everyone toward the X-Ray Room.
• A prop Zombie startled Hattori Heiji when it lunged at him without its bandages, and he spotted the plainclothes officers struggling to free themselves nearby.
• Amuro Tooru recognized the men as police officers after noticing that one of them had dropped a Police ID.

Amuro Tooru and the others regrouped after the police pile-on, then continued through the haunted house toward the X-Ray Room. In the Operating Room, a staged blood effect and Minetani Takai’s grotesque appearance frightened Toyama Kazuha.

• Amuro Tooru returned Hattori Heiji’s companions’ Police ID and explained why he had restrained them.
• Jiang Xia urged Hattori Heiji to continue through the haunted house, and Hattori decided to tell Kudo about the misunderstanding later.
• Jiang Xia led the group into the Operating Room, where they found Yumi Anzai posing as a patient beside an exit sign.
• The hospital bed shook and sprayed fake blood, which splashed onto Amuro Tooru’s hand.
• Minetani Takai appeared with blood at his mouth and his chest exposed as bones and organs, terrifying Toyama Kazuha, whom Jiang Xia caught.

Jiang Xia, Amuro Tooru, and Hattori Heiji discovered that Yumi Anzai had been poisoned and died in the haunted house. As police investigated, an officer privately warned Jiang Xia about the suspicious person accompanying him.

• Toyama Kazuha was startled by the College Students’ zombie act, and they revealed their props and explained that Yumi Anzai was supposed to sit up as part of the scene.
• Jiang Xia checked on Yumi Anzai and realized she was dead, while Toyama Kazuha noticed a bitter almond scent.
• Tsuji Eitaka tried to carry Yumi Anzai away, but Hattori Heiji stopped him and warned that poison gas remained in the air and the scene should be preserved.
• The police arrived after the signal jammer was turned off, and Amuro Tooru recognized officers he had earlier tied up in the haunted house.
• An officer pulled Jiang Xia aside and warned him that others had reported something wrong with his companion, urging him not to trust threats against calling the police.

Jiang Xia reassured the police that his trouble with Amuro Tooru was only a misunderstanding, then focused on the apparent suicide of a haunted-house performer. Her classmates connected her behavior to a friend’s suicide a month earlier, leaving Jiang Xia to investigate the death and the motive behind it.

• Hattori Heiji realized Jiang Xia had not given him a chance to act against Amuro Tooru and reluctantly concluded that Jiang Xia could handle the situation himself.
• Jiang Xia told the police that his conflict with Amuro Tooru was a misunderstanding, then turned his attention back to the murder case.
• Jiang Xia recounted how the bed had shaken and blood had sprayed from the victim’s abdomen; Minetani Takai explained the bed’s altered legs and the blood-spray mechanism.
• The police found capsule-shell remnants in Miss Yuimi’s mouth and suggested she might have committed suicide.
• Minetani Takai and Tsuji Eitaka explained that Anzai had become obsessed with playing corpses after their classmate Hashiguchi died by suicide a month earlier.

Jiang Xia and Hattori Heiji investigated Yuimi Anzai’s apparent poisoning and Jiang Xia revealed that the death was likely murder. He explained how the killer had poisoned Yuimi before the visitors arrived and used a trick beneath the bed to make it seem as though she was still alive.

• Tsuji Eitaka told Jiang Xia and the others that Yuimi Anzai had repeatedly taken risks to experience death for her corpse acting.
• Jiang Xia pointed out blood beneath Yuimi’s fingernails and scratch marks on her face, suggesting someone had forced poison into her mouth.
• Jiang Xia named Tsuji Eitaka as the suspected murderer, causing the group to turn on him.
• Tsuji argued that no one could have poisoned Yuimi while she wore a breathing mask, and Jiang Xia agreed that the timing had to be different.
• Jiang Xia explained that the killer had poisoned Yuimi before the visitors arrived, then used the bed’s slatted frame, a concealed sheet section, and his own legs to fake her movements.

Jiang Xia exposed Tsuji Eitaka as the murderer of Yumi Anzai by explaining how he hid beneath the bed and disguised his feet as hers. Tsuji confessed that he killed Yumi after learning she had urged Hashiguchi, who was terminally ill, to film his own death.

• Jiang Xia explained that Tsuji Eitaka had folded Yumi Anzai's legs beneath the covers, escaped through the blind spot under the bed, and disguised himself as staff.
• Jiang Xia showed red streaks on the bedsheet and explained that Tsuji had smeared red pigment on his toes to imitate Yumi's painted toenails.
• The police removed Tsuji's shoe and sock, exposed his stained toes, and watched him break down and confess.
• Tsuji told Minetani Takai and Katori Mutsumi that his arguments with Yumi had escalated after she revealed that Hashiguchi had filmed his own death at her urging.

Jiang Xia explained how he had baited Tsuji Eitaka into revealing himself as Hashiguchi’s murderer, then outlined the deductions that had made Tsuji his main suspect. After the case was solved, Hattori Heiji tried to join Amuro Tooru and Jiang Xia on their commission, but Amuro refused.

• Tsuji Eitaka was arrested after confessing that he had driven Hashiguchi to suicide and wanted to make the victim’s friend suffer the same fate.
• Jiang Xia collected the Killing Intent Tsuji left behind, while Matsuda picked up the fallen Shikigami.
• Jiang Xia told Hattori Heiji that he had used Tsuji’s suspicious reaction to draw out the confession, then explained why he had focused on the victim’s three classmates.
• Hattori Heiji recognized that Jiang Xia had deliberately baited Tsuji and privately acknowledged that his deductions were clever.
• Amuro Tooru set a time to miss the police statements and prepared to return to the hotel, while Hattori Heiji asked to join the commission.
• Amuro Tooru politely refused Hattori Heiji’s request.

Amuro Tooru tried to leave the campus festival with Jiang Xia, refusing Hattori Heiji’s company and a film director’s request for more filming. Their departure was interrupted when an injured man pointed at Jiang Xia, leaving Amuro unsure whether the victim was identifying him as the attacker.

• Amuro Tooru refused to bring Hattori Heiji along, and Hattori stayed behind after Toyama Kazuha suggested Jiang Xia might be undergoing a psychiatrist’s treatment disguised as a missing-person search.
• A film director asked Jiang Xia to take on more scenes, but Amuro refused and hurried him away before the script was complete.
• A woman ran out of an alley screaming that there was a dead person, then stumbled into Jiang Xia.
• Amuro called for an ambulance and kept bystanders away from the injured man, who opened his eyes and pointed at Jiang Xia.
• Amuro separated the woman from Jiang Xia, but the victim’s finger stayed pointed at Jiang Xia, so Amuro pushed him aside too.

Jiang Xia and Amuro Tooru were held at the scene after a dying man pointed at Jiang Xia, and the police began investigating the murder. Hattori Heiji joined Jiang Xia to question the film crew, where Jiang Xia noticed something about their legs.

• A dying man pointed at Jiang Xia before passing away, and the police kept Jiang Xia at the scene as an important witness.
• Hattori Heiji arrived, learned what had happened, and privately asked Jiang Xia whether he had attacked the victim; Jiang Xia denied it and defended his habit of beating criminals.
• Jiang Xia left Amuro Tooru beneath a tree and went with Hattori Heiji to question the film crew.
• The Director identified the victim as screenwriter Mr. Tatsumi and explained that he had disappeared days earlier before sending the crew a new script shortly before his death.
• Hattori Heiji turned to ask Jiang Xia about the scene, but saw him studying the crew members' calves.

Hattori Heiji and Jiang Xia investigated the murdered screenwriter’s scripts and hotel room for clues, while Amuro Tooru withdrew to his nearby room to rest. Elsewhere, Kazami Yuuya searched the police station’s ventilation ducts for Matsuda under Furuya Rei’s relaxed instructions.

• Hattori Heiji asked the director for the screenwriter’s scripts and learned that the missing writer had left a note saying he was leaving for a while.
• Jiang Xia joined the investigation and suggested searching the screenwriter’s hotel room and making copies of the scripts for the others to examine.
• The director led the group to Zhifeng Hotel, where Jiang Xia discovered the victim’s room was on his floor.
• Amuro Tooru told the police he was leaving, then returned to his nearby room to rest.
• Kazami Yuuya reported to Furuya Rei that his search of the police station’s fifth through seventh floors had found nothing, and Furuya Rei told him to take his time.

Amuro Tooru withdrew from contact with Kazami Yuuya and ordered him to have two people secretly watch Jiang Xia at Zhifeng Hotel. While investigating a victim’s room, Hattori Heiji found marked newspaper clippings about an art theft syndicate, and Jiang Xia suspected they were connected to the crew rather than the victim’s script.

• Amuro Tooru told Kazami Yuuya to send two discreet surveillance officers to Zhifeng Hotel and not contact him unless it was urgent.
• Kazami Yuuya obeyed, sending his teammates instructions to watch Jiang Xia while worrying that the detective might encounter trouble.
• Jiang Xia avoided searching the victim’s filthy room and watched the police investigate from beside an open window.
• Hattori Heiji searched the room and discovered newspaper articles about an art theft syndicate pasted inside the wardrobe.
• Jiang Xia checked the scripts, found no sign of the syndicate or artwork in the miniseries, and looked toward the crew members outside the room.

Jiang Xia used clues in the screenwriter’s script to direct Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha to search the lakes near Zhifeng University. After pretending to stay behind to think, Jiang Xia suddenly left the hotel, apparently having realized a crucial point.

• Jiang Xia suggested that the screenwriter had hidden clues in the script about a theft case connected to someone on the crew, unsettling two crew members who overheard him.
• Toyama Kazuha noticed that the script’s character A-Zhen and a riddle about a monster’s weakness could point to clues left by the victim.
• Hattori Heiji identified Scenery Lake as a likely search area, and Jiang Xia suggested splitting up to check nearby lakes.
• Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha left to search while Jiang Xia stayed behind, claiming he needed to think.
• After pacing under covert observation, Jiang Xia appeared to realize a crucial clue and hurried out of the hotel.

Jiang Xia found the memory card containing evidence against Lian Zhao Jiro and Potian Xiong, but the two criminals ambushed him inside the Western-style Mansion. They failed to kill him with their first blow and tried to stop him from reaching the open door.

• Lian Zhao Jiro and Potian Xiong revealed that the screenwriter had uncovered their stolen-art trafficking and fled after they developed murderous intent.
• Jiang Xia borrowed the university keys and searched the Western-style Mansion for the memory card.
• Jiang Xia found the card hidden near a hole in the wall behind the Scenery Lake painting.
• Lian Zhao Jiro and Potian Xiong attacked Jiang Xia with an iron rod, but he dodged and retreated toward the door.
• The two criminals rushed to stop Jiang Xia before he could escape the unlocked Mansion.

Jiang Xia turned the tables on Lian Zhao Jiro and Potian Xiong, while Hattori Heiji figured out that the mansion’s painting held the clue to the murder. Heiji learned Jiang Xia had already borrowed the mansion key and rushed after him.

• Jiang Xia let the door shut behind him, locked it from inside, and caught Lian Zhao Jiro’s iron rod with his bare hand.
• Jiang Xia disarmed Lian Zhao Jiro, injured his forearm, and threw him to the floor while admonishing him for failing to close the door.
• Hattori Heiji connected the lake’s view to a painting in the Western-style Mansion and deduced that the painting contained the clue to A-Zhen’s script.
• Hattori Heiji set off for the mansion, then went to ask the custodian for its key while Toyama Kazuha headed back toward the police.
• The custodian told Hattori Heiji that Jiang Xia had already borrowed the key, and Heiji hurried away before the custodian could finish recognizing him.

Hattori Heiji and the police rushed to the Western-style mansion after hearing sounds of a beating inside, fearing Jiang Xia was in danger. They rescued two suspects, and Jiang Xia finished giving his statement while the police recovered evidence of the screenwriter’s murder.

• Hattori Heiji met Toyama Kazuha and the police outside the locked mansion, where they heard muffled groans and repeated blows.
• The administrator arrived with what he knew, and the police began picking the lock as Hattori Heiji recognized Jiang Xia as the one doing the beating.
• Hattori Heiji warned Jiang Xia that the police were coming, and Jiang Xia stopped, collected the Shikigami, and arranged an iron rod in Lian Zhao Jiro's hand.
• The police opened the door, and the two suspects rushed out and surrendered to the officers.
• Jiang Xia gave his statement and told the police where to find the storage card and the discarded murder weapon; Hattori Heiji worried that his explanation might expose Jiang Xia's assault, but the police did not question him about it.

Jiang Xia realized Amuro Tooru had stopped observing him and tried to make sure the exhausted undercover agent got enough rest. After they traveled to Gunma Prefecture for an Organization mission, Jiang Xia hoped they would encounter another case along the way.

• Jiang Xia learned that Amuro Tooru had gone to rest, then decided the exhausted agent deserved a break after several nights of cases and little sleep.
• Amuro Tooru reappeared the next morning, chose the Shinkansen over a plane, and headed to Gunma Prefecture for an Organization mission.
• Jiang Xia looked for suspicious passengers on the train, but the trip passed without incident or any sign of Killing Intent.
• In Gunma Prefecture, Amuro Tooru bought a replacement car and planned to drive to the mission location.
• Jiang Xia wondered whether another case might occur and whether the lack of cases would make Amuro Tooru resume observing him.

After another flat tire left Amuro Tooru and Jiang Xia stranded in Toshigami Forest, they headed toward a nearby inn to wait for a tow truck. Along the way, Amuro righted a fallen Ksitigarbha statue, but Jiang Xia noticed that it had fallen unusually neatly.

• Amuro Tooru discovered that his car had a flat tire in the forest and checked for a nearby place to stay.
• Jiang Xia found that the radio had a signal, and Amuro called for roadside assistance.
• A staff member said no tow truck was available until the next morning and recommended an inn near Ghost Crying Cliff.
• Amuro chose to wait until morning for pickup, and he and Jiang Xia set off for the inn with their small bags.
• Amuro found a fallen Ksitigarbha statue beside the road, stood it upright, and removed a sharp piece of stone nearby.
• Jiang Xia stopped beside the statue and remarked that it seemed to have fallen unusually neatly.

Jiang Xia and Amuro Tooru traveled to Aoi Inn after learning about the forest’s suicide legend and an unidentified skeleton found nearby. At the inn, attendant Jinbo Daixiong showed Jiang Xia Killing Intent, and the innkeeper froze when he saw Jiang Xia’s name in the registry.

• Amuro Tooru searched for information about Toshigami Forest and learned that its face-down Ksitigarbha statue was said to suppress spirits and that anyone who set it upright would be cursed.
• Amuro Tooru read that a long-haired man in a red coat had been found skeletonized in the forest, with belongings that raised doubts about whether he had died by suicide.
• Jiang Xia and Amuro Tooru arrived at Aoi Inn, where attendant Jinbo Daixiong recognized Jiang Xia and gave off faint Killing Intent.
• Jinbo Daixiong showed no outward reaction as he led the pair to the front desk, then looked back at them from a corner.
• The innkeeper checked the registry and froze upon seeing the name Jiang Xia Tongzhi.

Jiang Xia and Amuro Tooru accepted the innkeeper’s commission to investigate the Man in Red’s old suitcase, which contained only a newspaper. Jiang Xia planned to look into it later, while remaining more interested in the waiter’s growing killing intent.

• The innkeeper recognized Jiang Xia and asked him to investigate the Man in Red, whose body had recently been found nearby.
• The innkeeper explained that five years earlier the Man in Red had left a locked suitcase and a letter with him, then a bearded man collected the letter and tore it up after reading it.
• Jiang Xia agreed to examine the matter that night, and the innkeeper gave him the suitcase and arranged rooms for him and Amuro Tooru.
• Jiang Xia opened the suitcase and found an old sports newspaper dated five years earlier, while Amuro Tooru checked that the suitcase had no hidden mechanisms.
• The innkeeper suggested they eat before the inn’s limited dinner service ended, and Jiang Xia kept the suitcase while watching the waiter’s killing intent.

Jinbo Daixiong learned that Jiang Xia had reached Aoi Inn and taken the suitcase containing clues to the missing 100 million yen. After years of working at the inn and searching the mountains, Jinbo planned how to get the suitcase back.

• Jinbo Daixiong finished checking in a guest, memorized Jiang Xia's room number, and told a caller posing as Jiang Xia not to come.
• Jinbo recalled that he had murdered the Man in Red five years earlier to steal their 100 million yen, but his accomplice had hidden the money and left a suitcase with the innkeeper.
• Jinbo had once disguised himself as Big Beard to claim the suitcase, but the innkeeper gave him only the curse letter and concealed the suitcase's existence.
• Jinbo moved into Aoi Inn under a false appearance and spent four years searching for the hidden money while working there.
• After the Man in Red's body was discovered, Jinbo learned that the innkeeper had kept a suitcase for him and planned to invite a Detective to investigate it.
• Jinbo decided against killing the innkeeper and considered exploiting the innkeeper's poor eyesight, face blindness, and limited access to news.