"Reika Hayami And The Uninvited Guest", a short story, is the fifth entry in the New Series of The Kindaichi Case Files.
Reika invites Kindaichi and Kenmochi aboard a cruise ship where Reika performs in a private party in the hope of spending time alone with Kindaichi, but, unbeknownst to them, a fugitive has sneaked on board as well.
Tropes include:
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: When Kindaichi, Reika, and the fugitive are taken to the private guestroom together as the result of Kindaichi and the fugitive tying in first place in Reika's Q & A contest, all three of them wonder whether there's a curse going on, though the fugitive's thought about the source is a darker one (i.e. from the man he had recently killed and is now impersonating) compared to Kindaichi and Reika wondering whether Miyuki, who is alive, is cursing their luck.Kindaichi: [thinking privately] Even though Reika-chan gave me a cheat sheet, this guy still turned up to stop our alone time! Is this Miyuki's curse?
Reika: [thinking privately] Even though I spent so much time thinking of a way to end up alone with Kindaichi, this third wheel still showed up... is this Nanase's curse?
Fugitive: [thinking privately] Damn it! Even though I wanted to fail the quiz, I still ended up getting them all right, and now I have to spend time with these brats! Is this the curse of that guy I killed? - Camping a Crapper: The story begins with a criminal ambushing and killing a guy while the latter is alone in the washroom.
- Can't You Read the Sign?: After the fugitive kills a man in a restroom and hides the dead body inside a stall, he places an "Out of Order" sign on the doorknob to the stall in question to prevent others from opening the door. Kindaichi happens to enter the restroom and nearly opens the door with the sign before the criminal shouts at him for not paying attention to the sign.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Played for comedy and dramatic plot advancement alike. During the questionnaire contest, Reika secretly slips an answer sheet to Kindaichi while handing question sheets to party attendants, all of whom are fans of Reika, with the intention of making sure Kindaichi alone gets all of the answers right so she'd be with him and him alone. Unfortunately for both of them, the fugitive manages to blind guess his way into getting all of the answers correctly as well despite wishing with all his might to guess wrongly (mind you, the answers have to be filled out manually), so the criminal ends up being the third wheel to Kindaichi and Reika's intended "private session".
- Contrived Coincidence: Despite not knowing a lick about Reika due to having spent years in prison, the fugitive manages to get all answers regarding her correctly (via blind guessing, at that), much to the shock and displeasure of Kindaichi, Reika, and the criminal alike.
- Dead Person Impersonation: The criminal pretends to be a man he had murdered while aboard the cruise ship.
- Double Entendre: A conversation between Kindaichi and the fugitive includes this part:Kindaichi: Your teeth are quite shiny, you know. Are you an actor by any chance?
Fugitive: Uh... no, I'm not.
Kindaichi: [with a rather shrewd expression] Don't tell me... you were in "THAT" kind of place...
Fugitive: [sporting Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat while the face goes pale] Hey! What do you mean, "that" place? That's rude!
Kindaichi: What I meant was, are you from a drama club or something similar?
Fugitive: Nothing like that. - Finagle's Law: The entire story is this trope in effect. The criminal hoping for the ship he's stowing away in to go aboard? Nope, it's just going to loop back to Japan. Kindaichi and Reika expecting no one but Reika's fans to be in the party? Ha, a fugitive who's never heard of Reika happens to be among the attendants. Someone in the police force is about the last person the criminal wants to meet... and Kenmochi happens to be in the party, too. Worse yet for the criminal, the same person he had murdered and now pretends to be is the only person who's seated in the same table as Kindaichi and Kenmochi, so the fugitive has to be in the same table as them just to keep up the pretense. Reika and Kindaichi hoping to be alone by themselves via Reika helping Kindaichi cheat in the Q & A contest and win while the fugitive wishing to guess wrong in order to sneak away later? Congratulations, the criminal ends up getting tied with Kindaichi in the first place in the contest despite having NO knowledge about Reika (via blind guessing, at that), so a supposed private party of two ends up being a party of three. The fugitive trying his best to cover his tracks or take Reika hostage if he fails? Bad news — Kindaichi is a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass who succeeds in Spotting the Thread quickly and gets Kenmochi to subdue the criminal the moment he tries anything after Kindaichi exposes him.
- Internal Reveal: The criminal is revealed early on due to having killed a man in secret and taken on his identity at the start of the story.
- Minor Major Character: Miyuki is absent throughout this murder case except for one panel at the end due to her not being in the cruise.
- Sneeze Cut: The lone panel at the end where Miyuki appears shows her sneezing after Kenmochi mentions her.Miyuki: Achoo! Oh, no, is this a pollen allergy?
- Spit Take: The fugitive has this reaction when Kindaichi drops the ball on him as he's taking a drink during the private session with Reika.Kindaichi: Personally, I think that there's a very dangerous person among us right now.
- Wrench Whack: The fugitive murders a man with a wrench after sneaking on board.
