Recap / The Kindaichi Case Files Headless Samurai Murder Case

"Headless Samurai Murder Case" is the ninth case in the File Series of The Kindaichi Case Files.

After Kenmochi receives a letter from Shino Tatsumi, a childhood friend of his, he enlists the help of Kindaichi. Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Kenmochi travel to a remote village in the Hida region named Kuchinashi, where Shino lives in the wealthy Tatsumi household. While they stay in the house as guests, a murder case unfolds...

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Tropes include:

• Alpha Bitch: As Shino narrates, Ayako Tatsumi, the previous matriarch of the Tatsumi family, was a bullying Rich Bitch with a Girl Posse who tormented her when they were classmates back when they were 15. Her hostility towards Shino persisted well into their adult years, once Shino became a house servant, as she tormented Shino right up until she died.
• Break the Haughty: Ryuunosuke Tatsumi is the first son of Tatsumi Clan, one of the most influential clan in Hida region. He gives a very hard time to Kindaichi and the others due to how selfish, arrogant, and bad-tempered he is, thinking that he should've been the one inheriting the clan's legacy instead of Seimaru, his stepbrother he despises. At the end of the case, everything he knew comes crashing down: He's actually not the legitimate son of Tatsumi clan, instead he's the biological son of the stepmother he also despises and the family's newest servant, his younger brother stops his mental retardation facade and reveals to the entire family that the reason said brother does it is because Ryuunosuke poisoned his drink, and his real mother dies from the same trick he used on his younger brother just because he doesn't want her to have any share in Tatsumi family's wealth, not knowing that she would've given up her rights to it anyway. He can only cry when the consequences of his action unfold.
• Cain and Abel: Ryuunosuke and Seimaru do NOT get along, especially after the inheritance will was read aloud for everyone within the Tatsumi family to hear, starting with the two of them wrestling each other, requiring others to break them apart, and then their interactions quickly become much more volatile, culminating in Ryuunosuke pointing the loaded rifle that hangs on the wall of the Tatsumi living room at Seimaru before it's wrested from his hands.
• The Cake Is a Lie: As Kindaichi surmises, which Shino confirms, late in the case, the family butler cooperated with Shino only because Shino promised him that he'd have a share of the Tatsumi family fortune after Ryuunosuke becomes the heir of the family clan, but Shino has no intention of keeping that promise, as evidenced by her not divulging the information about the rifle being clogged, which caused the death of the butler for trying to fire it.^note  However, given that he abandoned Shino after getting her pregnant after a one-night stand while she was a teenager, and then came back two years ago intending to Blackmail her after somehow finding out she became the second wife of the wealthy Tatsumi family clan before agreeing to her plan only for the sake of having a share in the Tatsumi family fortune, plus his willingness to kill her in a dire situation (which Shino had already anticipated beforehand), no one feels sorry for his death.
  Shino: Aha ha ha ha, what a fool! He had no idea he had signed his own death warrant!
• Career-Ending Injury: As Kindaichi reveals late in the case arc, the family butler is not the culprit despite being a former acrobat with a small body size that might have enabled him to utilize a trick to escape the window of the locked treasure room where the first murder took place because some other evidence points to him having a severe fear of heights after suffering an acrobatics-related accident that caused him to quit his occupation as an acrobat.
• Catapult Nightmare: Kindaichi and Miyuki are shown to have been beheaded at one point, only to cut to Kindaichi waking up with a scream, with both himself and Miyuki being alive and in one piece, proving that it was All Just a Dream.
• Damsel in Distress: Miyuki gets kidnapped at one point, causing Kindaichi to seek her out — and get kidnapped himself as well. Fortunately, Kindaichi manages to free himself, save Miyuki, and escape from their confine, which, as Kindaichi realizes and then reveals late in the arc, was the culprit's intention in the first place.
• Death by Mocking: Possibly played with since the one being mocked is not the murderer, but the trope is otherwise played straight: After the Tatsumi family master's will has been read, Seimaru, in his moment of vindication at being granted the inheritor status, says to Ryuunosuke: "Looks like the tables have turned, eh, brother? So why don't all of you guys get the Hell out of my house?" Unfortunately, his facial expression is such a splitting image of Ayako as he taunts Ryuunosuke that it triggers Shino's bad memories of the bullying she suffered from Ayako and drives her to have Seimaru murdered, as she states in her confession late in the case arc (and the fact that Shino had always wished for Ryuunosuke to be the Tatsumi family estate inheritor only served to enforce her determination, if anything).
• Decapitation Presentation: While Kindaichi and Miyuki are kidnapped, the culprit shows them the head of Seimaru, who had been considered missing since the case broke out in earnest. Kindaichi expresses his belief during The Summation late in the case that the culprit did this to get him and Miyuki to confirm Seimaru's death for the culprit's real motive.
• The Drag-Along: This case arc starts with Kenmochi summoning Kindaichi, with Miyuki in tow, to the bus stop that's bound for the village of Kuchinashi, where the sender requesting Kenmochi is located. This trope applies to Kindaichi, both metaphorically and literally, because he would have preferred staying home otherwise if it weren't for Kenmochi's summon and he gets dragged by his traveling bag at one point when the bus door closes before he manages to get inside the bus and it starts moving until the bus driver notices him being dragged, leaving him with Amusing Injury as the result.
  Kenmochi: Stop fooling around!
  Kindaichi: We're late as it is! Humph! I only came because you asked.
  Kenmochi: It's for a case!
• Gold Digger: The motive behind the family butler's cooperation with the culprit is solely due to the promise that he'd get a share of the Tatsumi family fortune, as the culprit confirms during the confession. Prior to that, the motive behind his arrival at the place was merely to Blackmail for money, which the culprit also confirms.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The rifle that hangs on the wall of the Tatsumi living room turns out to have been clogged with lead, after a burglar broke into the house and tried to use it years ago. The knowledge, or lack thereof, turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun in this case.
  • The family butler tries to use it on the actual culprit at one point, only to find out too late that he's been Out-Gambitted, as the rifle ends up backfiring and killing him.
  • Earlier in the arc, Ryuunosuke grabs it and aims at Seimaru following an argument between them, only for his stepmother to wrest it out of his hands. After Kindaichi learns of the clogged status of the rifle following the family butler's death, this bit of information helps him to identify the actual culprit, because Ryuunosuke is one of the few members in the Tatsumi family without such knowledge.
• Inheritance Murder: The reason behind the culprit murdering Seimaru turns out to be to allow Ryuunosuke to inherit the wealthy Tatsumi estate.
• Invented Individual: Akanuma Saburo is this. The character was described as someone's child and, when said person died, the blood test revealed that it was not true. It was actually done to camouflage the killer's "child" in order to be identified as the said dead invented character. In fact, the "child" was not really the killer's. The plan was created such in order to hide this fact.
• Ironic Echo: As the Flashback shows early in the case arc, Ryuunosuke was fully expecting to be the sole inheritor of the Tatsumi estates as the announcement of the will made by the deceased Mr. Tatsumi was nigh, causing him to comment thusly:
  Ryuunosuke: I'm the new head of the family. If you don't like it, get the Hell out, and take the nag with you.
  • The will, however, ends up serving a curve-ball in favor of Seimaru, who proudly stated after the will was read:
    Seimaru: Looks like the tables have turned, eh, brother? So why don't all of you guys get the Hell out of my house?
• Jump Scare: Played for Laughs after the murder case ends. Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Kenmochi return to Tokyo, and, during the train ride on their way back, Kenmochi is much too lost in thought over his memories of Shino back in their school days in contrast to her adult self to notice anything, so Kindaichi resorts to SHOUTING at Kenmochi's ear to snap him out of it.
  Kenmochi: Don't scare me like that!
  Kindaichi: We've reached our stop.
• The Killer Becomes the Killed: An accidental version. Shino kills Seimaru in order to ensure Ryuunosuke's estate inheritor status after Mr. Tatsumi's will was read (and Seimaru's facial expression in that particular moment only served to drive her resolve to murder him more, if anything), only for herself to be killed after drinking poisoned tea that Ryuunosuke had set up for her before the whole truth was revealed, resulting in Ryuunosuke becoming a Self-Made Orphan.
• Luke, I Am Your Father:
  • Part of the shocking revelation that Kindaichi reveals as the case nears its end is that Ryuunosuke is the biological son of his "stepmother", who admits to having him and Seimaru Switched at Birth soon afterwards.
  • Another part of the shocking revelation near the case's end is that the family butler, who arrived two years ago, is actually Ryuunosuke's biological father, who abandoned Shino after getting her pregnant following a one-night stand with her. According to Shino, he showed up with the sole intent of blackmailing her, before agreeing to Shino's proposal, under the promise of getting a share of the Tatsumi estate once Ryuunosuke takes over the Tatsumi family wealth.
• No Honor Among Thieves: The butler has no qualms with killing his teammate(s) when the chips are down. Too bad for him the culprit already anticipated it and kept him in the dark about the vital truth about the rifle that's hung on the wall, leaving him Out-Gambitted when he pulls the trigger, which backfires and gets him killed instead.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • Right after Kindaichi, Miyuki, and Kenmochi arrive at the Tatsumi house, they enter the living room without realizing Shino happens to be under the village physician's treatment at the moment, causing Kenmochi to cover his and Kindaichi's eyes in a hurry, though thankfully Shino has her back facing them so that nothing risque was shown.
  • During the time of the case, Kindaichi accidentally walks in on Miyuki while the latter is in the middle of changing her clothes. While Miyuki is reasonably upset with him, it also turns out to be a minor case of Spanner in the Works as the culprit, who is hiding in the closet at the time, is just about to sneak up on Miyuki and kidnap her before Kindaichi walks in^note  (not that it stops the culprit from trying again later in a different occasion).
• Obfuscating Insanity: Years ago, Hayato found out Ryuunosuke tried to poison him so he'd be named their father's inheritor, so Hayato spent years pretending the failed poisoning had mentally traumatized him out of fear Ryuunosuke would try something again. Hayato reveals the truth after Shino drinks the poisoned tea Ryuunosuke uses to get rid of her, and just after Ryuunosuke learns Shino has been his birth mother all along. The only other person who knew Hayato was faking was Tamaki, one of their family's maids and Hayato's girlfriend.
• Off with His Head!:
  • The first victim is decapitated, though Kindaichi expresses belief late in the arc that said victim was killed via impalement before being beheaded.
  • The history of the town goes that a general who had arrived in the village was decapitated by his subordinates, who in turn died with their own heads missing a year later.
• Right Behind Me: At the end of the case arc, Kenmochi, in his talk with Kindaichi and Miyuki, compares motherly love with romantic love before going on a rant about how a woman treats her husband like trash after feeling comfortable with her spouse. A woman behind him asks him who he's referring to, with him responding that he's referring to his wife, only to turn around and see that the woman he's talking to is none other than his wife. Cue Kenmochi reacting with an Oh, Crap! expression.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: As Shino reveals, Ayako Tatsumi bullied and tormented her in their adult years as much as she did back when they were teenage classmates, once Shino became a family servant in the Tatsumi clan, right up until Ayako herself died.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • After the case is wrapped up, Hayato, who no longer acts with Obfuscating Insanity, decides to elope with Tamaki and leave Kuchinashi behind.
  • Upon Kenmochi being accosted by his wife, who has found out that her husband spent the past several days skipping work instead of for work since Kenmochi didn't take on Shino's initial request via a job-related procedure (and his rant against her just a moment ago without noticing that she was right behind him all along doesn't help, if anything), Kenmochi tries futilely to justify himself. Kindaichi is in the midst of leaving the scene with Miyuki, only for Kenmochi to drag him back into the topic to be his Fall Guy.
    Kenmochi: Wait! It was all Kindaichi's idea!
    Kindaichi: What?! No, I'm innocent!
    Kenmochi: [whispers to Kindaichi] Just play along, you idiot!
    Kindaichi: NO WAY!
• Self-Made Orphan: An accidental one. Ryuunosuke slips a poison on his stepmother's tea, but she turns out to be his real mother.
• Small Role, Big Impact: As Kindaichi's private dialogue with the village physician indicates right after the case is wrapped up, Kindaichi surmises that the village physician, despite having no direct role in the case, nonetheless might have helped to keep the story in motion, back when Ryuunosuke and Seimaru were newly born, by not interfering with Shino's action that caused them to be Switched at Birth due to the facts that 1) the physician was a medical student in the hospital where both Shino and Ayako delivered their respective offspring, 2) the physician shares the same surname as the general who was killed four centuries ago, and 3) the families of both the deceased general line and the Tatsumi clan have been enemies for generations. It also overlaps with Unwitting Instigator of Doom as well, given the events from this case end with Shino dead and Ryuunosuke becoming an accidental Self-Made Orphan.
• Speak Ill of the Dead:
  • Shino's opinion about the family butler is as low after the latter's passing as while the latter was alive. However, given that he abandoned Shino after getting her pregnant after a one-night stand while she was a teenager, and then came back two years ago intending to Blackmail her after somehow finding out she became the second wife of the wealthy Tatsumi family clan before agreeing to her plan only for the sake of having a share in the Tatsumi family fortune, plus his willingness to kill her in a dire situation (which Shino had already anticipated beforehand), no one feels sorry for his death.
    Shino: That man was nothing more than garbage!
  • Shino's opinion towards Ayako, the previous Tatsumi matriarch, is no better, as evidenced by her labeling Ayako as a "she-devil" after Kindaichi finishes The Summation. On the other hand, it's not too surprising, given that Ayako was an Alpha Bitch towards Shino back in their school days and treated her with just as much hostility in their adult years as she did during their high school days right up until Ayako herself died.
• Switched at Birth: Ryuunosuke and Seimaru were swapped soon after their births, with his "stepmother" being the one doing so, in an attempt to allow him to live a better life. This leads to a shocking revelation near the end of the case arc when it's revealed that Ryuunosuke's "stepmother" turns out to have been his biological mother all along.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Ryuunosuke does this twice.
  • The first time he did so was on Hayato years ago, causing Hayato to fall ill. After he recovered, he then adopted an act of Obfuscating Insanity to make Ryuunosuke believe he posed no threat to Ryuunosuke's status. Only Tamaki, one of their family's maids and Hayato's girlfriend, knew the truth until Hayato drops his act at the end of the case.
  • The other time Ryuunosuke does it, he ends up becoming an accidental Self-Made Orphan, as he targets Shino this time, not knowing Shino is actually his biological mother.
• Teen Pregnancy: Shino and Ayako both became pregnant at roughly the same time span while they were both teenagers. This makes having Ryuunosuke and Seimaru Switched at Birth possible.
• Tempting Fate: The Flashback shows Ryuunosuke rushing Mr. Tatsumi's lawyer regarding the announcement of the will, fully expecting to be the sole inheritor of the Tatsumi estate. He was in for a nasty shock when the content of the will indicated that the inheritor status would be given to Seimaru instead.
• That Man Is Dead: In this case, "woman". After Shino confesses to everyone who's present about the murder plot, Kenmochi asks her why she even invited him to the house in the first place. Shino responds that she only requested his presence to trick him into believing The Butler Did It and have the case closed as such so Ryuunosuke would become the heir for the Tatsumi family fortune.
  Shino: Mr. Kenmochi... The only reason I invited you here was to use your kindness to my advantage. The Shino you knew lives only in your memory. What's left behind is a beast... that just goes by the name "Shino".
• Town with a Dark Secret: The local legend of Kuchinashi has a dark history dating back four centuries, back when a general arrived in the village to seek refuge. He tried to drive the then-chief of the village out, only for his soldiers to kill and decapitate him before he could do so. His subordinates offered his head to the village chief as a sign of goodwill and settled down in the village, only to be found dead a year later under strange circumstances, and with the same headless result as their dead general. Believing that the spirit of the dead general was behind their deaths, the villagers enacted a shrine and headless statues with the same number of statues as that of the dead villagers in an attempt to appease him. Even the name "Kuchinashi" hints at this legend, as it derives from "kubinashi" ("headless" in Japanese). As everyone in Kuchinashi is a descendant of the soldiers who had killed the general, talking about the legend is considered taboo — Kenmochi manages to learn of it only through the village physician, who discloses the details reluctantly only after Kindaichi and Miyuki are missing (they're kidnapped at the time) and Kenmochi is desperate to find them for fear that they might be the next victims.
• Trauma Conga Line: It's not difficult to see that much of Shino's life has been mired in suffering. All of this began when her father died while she was 15, which, combined with the facts that her family wasn't well-to-do in the first place and her mother was too ill to support her family, meant that she was condemned to poverty. She tried to apply herself in school in the hope of getting qualified for a prestigious school so that she'd be able to get out of poverty, but Ayako undermined her, and she withdrew from schooling altogether following her mother's death the next year. She went to the city to look for work, but to no avail. Worse yet, a man seduced her into giving her body to him while she was there, before abandoning her upon finding out that he got her pregnant. She went to the hospital to give birth to her child, and it turned out to be the same one where Ayako was giving birth to hers as well. In desperation to give her son the kind of life that was denied to her, Shino had her son, Ryuunosuke, and Ayako's son, Seimaru, Switched at Birth. Unable to completely sever ties with her biological son, she became a house servant for the Tatsumi family clan, where Ayako tormented her with the same ruthlessness as she had done in school during their younger days, right up until Ayako herself died. With Ayako dead, she became the next in line as the family matriarch, and she was eagerly anticipating Ryuunosuke inheriting the Tatsumi family fortune, only for her hope to be dashed when the Tatsumi family master's will decreed that Seimaru would inherit the wealth instead. In his moment of vindication, Seimaru acted with arrogance towards Ryuunosuke, and his facial expression at that moment triggered Shino's bad memories of the bullying she suffered at Ayako's hands and caused Shino to concoct a plan with the family butler, who arrived two years ago to Blackmail her initially before agreeing to bide his time in the Tatsumi family as the butler after Shino promised him a share of the family fortune due to him being Ryuunosuke's biological father, to kill her adopted son to ensure Ryuunosuke's inheritor status. After the butler's death, her plan is set to succeed, but she ends up being killed by Ryuunosuke, who put poison in the tea she's about to drink before the whole story becomes revealed.^note  To be fair to Ryuunosuke, he planned to poison her when he didn't know the true story about his biological connection with Shino. After the whole truth is revealed, he tries to stop her upon witnessing her drinking the poisoned tea, but fails to do so in time. She spends her dying moment feebly trying to defend Ryuunosuke, lamenting that she was never able to give him anything, and wishing him happiness before taking her final breath.
• Two Dun It: This case arc is the first one in this franchise in which there are actually two culprits in a murder case instead of one.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: After the family butler dies, Kenmochi believes him to be the culprit in this case, as the existing evidence points to a small opening in the window of the locked treasure room where the first murder took place and said butler having been revealed posthumously to have been a former acrobat who became an acrobatics teacher with a small body frame, only for Kindaichi to refute him with some other bits of evidence indicating that said butler had developed severe acrophobia after suffering an acrobatics-related accident that caused him to quit his occupation as an acrobat, which would have prevented him to utilize the treasure room window even if he could do it.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Shino's scheme of ensuring Ryuunosuke's family inheritor status hits a snag when the Tatsumi family master's will decrees that the family estate be passed to Seimaru instead.
• Your Mom: Played with in a dialogue between Hayato and Kindaichi after the case is wrapped up. It's inverted when Hayato pokes fun at his own mother as well as Ryuunosuke, whereas Kindaichi does a downplayed version of this in his assessment of them.^note  That being said, only Hayato laughs from his statement, as everyone else who hears him at the time finds it too awkward to laugh about it.
  Hayato: What surprised me the most... was that Ryuunosuke was Mrs. Shino's son! Because, of the three of us, I thought he resembled our late mother [Ayako] the most! [laughs]
  Kindaichi: Your mother must have been really something.