Recap / The Kindaichi Case Files Snow Spirit Legend Murder Case

"Snow Spirit Legend Murder Case" is the fourth case arc in the New Series of The Kindaichi Case Files.

Hajime and Miyuki return home from school one day and discover a fancy car in front of the Kindaichi house. The driver of the car, who's the lawyer speaking on behalf of a recently-deceased wealthy millionaire, offers Hajime a share of the riches said millionaire has left behind, on condition that he must stay within a cabin named "Yukiryo Villa" throughout the first weekend in January. Hajime agrees at once, Miyuki decides to accompany him, and Mrs. Kindaichi requests Kenmochi, who's off-duty throughout said weekend, to monitor her son to make sure Hajime doesn't do anything funny with Miyuki, and so the three of them make their way to Yukiryo Villa, which is located in a snowy mountain range, where several others are also staying, never anticipating a chilling serial murder case to take shape while they take shelter from the snowstorm that rages in the mountain.

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Tropes include:

• Actually Pretty Funny: After reaching the villa, Hajime gets acquainted with everyone — well, almost everyone, since one person, the brother of one of the fellow visitors, is nowhere in sight. Hajime then proceeds to greet another guy under the mistaken belief of him being the brother in question. When the guy sets the record straight, Hajime moves on to a middle-aged mountaineer and asks him if he is the brother in question, only for the mountaineer to react in hearty laughter in return.^note  At this point, Hajime gives up and asks the person who his brother might be before being told that he hasn't arrived yet.
• All Just a Dream: The sequence in which Hajime and the spirit of the deceased Saki brother meet and interact with each other turns out to be a dream Hajime had while he was Asleep in Class all along.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: After the caretaker hands Hajime the newspaper article about the incident two years ago that ended in Yuika's demise, he scrutinizes the person who's the only one still alive among the group being included in the news story, only for the guy Hajime asks to clam up and refuse to answer before leaving for shower, with the guy privately saying he would never let Hajime and co. find out more about the incident. As it turns out, Hajime and co. do end up learning more about the incident, but not from him, for the culprit discloses the full details about the incident in question in the confession late in the case arc, after everyone in the group, the guy Hajime scrutinized included, has already fallen victim to murder.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • The reason Hajime and several others are invited to the villa for a share of the recently-deceased millionaire (100 million yen^note , which amounts to roughly 1 million in USD, to be precise) is because those who are given the invitation actually displayed genuine help towards said millionaire. Then it becomes subverted when the whole thing turns out to be a bait to have the intended targets, none of whom actually met the millionaire, Lured into a Trap so the culprit could kill them, and the invitations to the people who met and helped said millionaire for real were merely to have their presence mask the culprit's purpose of murdering the intended targets.
  • Played straight regarding the millionaire and the culprit. The culprit rescued the millionaire on the mountains at one point, and the millionaire, in turn, treated the culprit like their own offspring right up to the dying breath, with the culprit treating the millionaire like their own parent.
• The Bet: When Hajime is about to start The Summation, one of the survivors, who's rather skeptical of Hajime due to him having made a misjudgment earlier on while the serial murder was still ongoing, suggests for Hajime to wager his share of the reward money for his deduction, on which Hajime agrees.
• Bloodless Carnage: Despite the first victim being found dead with a pick-axe being stuck inside the chest, there's no sign of bleeding. As Hajime reveals during Summation Gathering, the victim in question was actually murdered and dismembered with a chainsaw, but no bleeding took place because the body was doused with liquid nitrogen beforehand and too frozen stiff to bleed. In addition, the blood spots that are discovered near the bed late in the murder case are signs of dismemberment later on, once the window is closed long enough for the room temperature to rise high enough for frozen bits of human flesh and blood to melt.
• Body in a Breadbox: In this case, the "body" is the torso of the murder victim, without the limbs or the head, and the "breadbox" is a jerrycan: The first victim's torso is hidden within a jerrycan that gets placed among the other cans, all of which are carried to the bedrooms the visitors would stay in, with one in each.
• Brick Joke: This case arc starts with Hajime and his mother being told they would be rewarded 100 million yen after staying inside a villa for a weekend. It ends with Mrs. Kindaichi prettying up after getting a makeover and a new dress under the false promise of the monetary reward due to Hajime not having the heart to tell her the truth yet.
• The Cake Is a Lie: Miyuki believes the promise of the 100 million yen reward for spending a weekend in a mountain villa sounds Too Good to Be True, and she turns out to be right all along: The promise of the monetary reward turns out to be either a bait to get the intended victims Lured into a Trap or for the real helpers to unwittingly act as camouflage for the culprit's real intention.
• The Cameo: This case arc starts with the spirit of the deceased Saki brother making a brief appearance to Hajime and issuing a warning to him, before Hajime himself is knocked awake, due to him being Asleep in Class yet again.
  Be careful... of snowy mountains and attractive offers!
• Chainsaw Good: The first victim is murdered — and dismembered with a chainsaw, as Hajime reveals during Summation Gathering.
• Closed Circle: The villa is completely isolated when the communication device is not working (whether due to the heavy snowstorm or human sabotage is not made clear) and the snowstorm itself renders trekking down the mountain path potentially fatal to anyone trying to do so, especially after the culprit steals and hides everyone's footwear later in the murder case, increasing the risk for frostbite and hypothermia to anyone walking outside.
• Compliment Backfire: After one fellow visitor is found dead, Hajime starts making deductions. When one other visitor doesn't appear to be fully confident about Hajime's deduction capability, Miyuki tries to build up his credential, but her unfortunate choice of words makes Hajime less than pleased as the result.
  Miyuki: He might not look like it, but Hajime is the grandson of the famous detective, Kosuke Kindaichi! And he himself has solved some very difficult cases!
  Hajime: [thinking privately] "Might not look like it"? What the Hell?
• Connected All Along: The caretaker of the villa, who's among the participants in this case arc, turns out to have been the best friend of the very same mountain climber who disappeared seventeen years ago without his body being discovered and is the source of the local legend in this mountain range, though he doesn't mention this fact until the case arc is near conclusion.
• Continuity Nod: When Hajime recounts his one encounter with the recently-deceased millionaire, part of the encounter involved him cautioning said millionaire about making a map for personal use from a faulty one that was on display and claiming to have been fooled by such a map once in the past. While Hajime is not specific about when such an incident occurred, a faulty map design was a trap being employed by the culprit against a designated victim and got Hajime himself trying to find potential shortcuts without success in "the Amakusa Treasure Legend Murder Case", a case he had been involved in prior to the current case arc.
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": At the time each visitor is to carry his or her oil tank into the room each of them will be staying within, a girl has yet to show up to take hers. Her boyfriend (or so he and the girl claim to be) hurts his back for trying to carry her oil tank, and the same happens to Hajime when he attempts it, so Kenmochi ends up being the one to do so instead. This turns out to be plot-relevant, because that heavy oil tank actually contains the girl's torso, which makes whomever managing to carry and place it in the girl's room an Unwitting Pawn — Kenmochi, in this case.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Having someone's body frozen stiff with liquid nitrogen in snowy weather before dismembering it via a chainsaw definitely counts. It's also acknowledged as such In-Universe, when Hajime reveals this murder method during Summation Gathering.
  Kenmochi: What a monstrous way to kill someone!
• Delayed "Oh, Crap!": Early in the case arc, Miyuki hears some noise that sounds different from the howling wind while trying to sleep at nighttime. Having heard the legend of a snow spirit roaming around the mountain range, she curls herself up in fear before the noise stops and she's finally able to go to sleep, with her disclosing what she'd heard to Hajime the next morning. After Hajime reveals in Summation Gathering that the murderer uses a chainsaw to cut up the targeted girl's body in order to dispose the corpse, bringing up the noise Miyuki heard that night, it takes a bit of monologue before the gruesome reality of what that noise entails causes her to Faint in Shock briefly.
  Miyuki: Oh, I see! So it wasn't the voice of the snow spirit... but just a chainsaw instead! [Beat, followed by her Oh, Crap! expression] Ch-chainsaw...
• Delayed Reaction: Hajime fully expects the reward he receives for one small, mundane act of kindness towards the recently-deceased wealthy millionaire to be minuscule at best, so it takes a moment for the lawyer's words of a generous monetary reward to sink in.
  Hajime: The amount of money I'm going to receive won't be much, right?
  Lawyer: Well, it will only be 100 million yen.
  Hajime: See? You heard it yourself! It's only 100 million... yen? WHAT?! ONE HUNDRED MILLION YEN?!
• Dismembering the Body: As Hajime reveals during Summation Gathering, this is how the culprit treats the fist victim's body, by taking the body parts apart outside (after having it frozen stiff via liquid nitrogen), reassembling the body from outside the window ("just like a jigsaw puzzle", states Hajime), taking the body parts back outside after everyone else has seen the corpse, and burying the body parts somewhere, abandoned.
  Kindaichi: When the snow melts, it [the dismembered body] will probably become food for the bears.
• Dying Clue: The final murder victim, having already been gravely wounded after the culprit ambushes him, throws a mug at the killer, which misses and shatters on the floor, before the murderer proceeds to deal the killing blow. Hajime reveals during The Summation the fact that heavier objects that are nearby said mug, such as a vase and a statue, being left alone suggests that the target threw the mug not for self-defense, but to alert other survivors of who the culprit is via the broken mug.
• Exact Words: Played for Laughs. During Summation Gathering, Hajime reveals that the culprit, having dismembered the body of the first murder victim, managed to have the victim's torso brought inside the designated room, fooling everyone in the process, at which point Kenmochi demands to know who did it. Hajime's response? "It was YOU, Uncle." Cue Kenmochi panicking for a moment as he frantically tries to defend his own innocence, before Hajime clarifies that the killer, instead of personally doing it, utilized the trick of having the torso hidden within a jerrycan with everyone else being none the wiser, resulting in Kenmochi being the Unwitting Pawn since he was the one who managed to carry the oil tank into the room.
• Faint in Shock:
  • Miyuki faints once the gruesome reality of the noise made by a chainsaw that she heard one night sets in, though it takes a bit of monologue before she fully realizes what it meant, as she had thought the noise was from the spirit of a dead person at first, but Kenmochi manages to catch her before her head hits the floor.
  • Played for Drama two years ago when the culprit blacked out upon seeing Yuika's dead body, as the culprit fell off a cliff when fainting after seeing her corpse, which alerted the rescue crew at the scene at once, and was hospitalized for it.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: This case arc begins with a brief interaction between Hajime and the ghost of the deceased Saki brother warning him "of snowy mountains and attractive offers", which turns out to be All Just a Dream, but Hajime never manages to find out what that entails before the teacher knocks him awake due to him being yet again Asleep in Class. When he and Miyuki return home after the school day is over, they're greeted by lawyer speaking on behalf of a recently-deceased wealthy millionaire, who offers Hajime the reward of 100 million yen on condition that he stay inside a mountain villa that's located in a snowy mountain range throughout the scheduled weekend.
• Four Is Death: The ones who are responsible for Yuika's demise are four people (one female and three male), all of whom fall victim to the culprit in this murder case.
• Heroic Sacrifice: One of the participants in this case arc recounts an accident that she and her sister had while at sea, which ends with her sister giving her own life jacket to her due to her not having one at the time and losing her own life as a result.
• If I Were a Rich Man: Both Hajime and his mother have a fantasy about what they'd do with the excess wealth after receiving 100 million yen at one point early in the case arc. Hajime wonders how many new video game systems he'd be able to buy, whereas his mother wishes to pay off the house mortgage and have an English house-garden, and the two of them have a brief argument over whom the money would belong to before Miyuki raises the question about the conditions for the monetary reward.
• Jump Scare: Played for Drama. In the same morning Miyuki informs Hajime of the noise she heard during the previous night, Kenmochi discovers to his shock that the cadaver of the diseased girl has gone missing, which prompts him and task Hajime with helping to have everyone else gathered in the lobby for further investigation. Before he can ask questions when most people have assembled at the lobby, however, something flies into the lobby and startles all, smashing through the glass window in the process, though no one has been struck by it. Panic sets in once the object is identified as a bloody pickax and one of the people who have failed to turn up at the lobby is found dead on the snowy ground outside, with the pickax in question being the tool that killed the recently-deceased person.
• Naked People Are Funny: Downplayed. The culprit mentions having been lost in a snowstorm in the mountain and struggling to stay awake for fear of death by hypothermia, only to fall asleep... and to wake up in a sleeping bag next to a girl the morning after. The biggest shock to the culprit, however, was that the girl had only her bra and underwear on. According to the culprit, this is how they met in a Rescue Romance.
• Nightmare Fuel: In-Universe. Once Hajime reveals the method for the particularly gruesome murder and dismemberment of the first victim, which involves a chainsaw, all of the survivors react with their faces going pale and varying degrees of Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Yuika encountered a group of four mountain hikers two years ago and gave them some provisions when they pleaded for help. The girl within the group, seeing that Yuika had a lot more than she was giving them, promptly grabs more of them without getting Yuika's consent or bothering to find out why she had so much more on herself, culminating in her knocking Yuika out in the ensuing altercation. When the others in the group wonder what to do next, the girl suggested for them to take all the items they could and leave just enough on Yuika so she'd freeze to death and get others to believe she was reckless enough to be out in the cold without sufficient equipment and died for that, all in the name of saving their own skin. Once the culprit, who was planning to propose to Yuika, found out the truth, the seed of murder was planted.
• Not So Above It All: Once the lawyer lays out the monetary reward offer and all of the caveats that come with it, Mrs. Kindaichi and her son both react in a celebratory manner. Miyuki, despite still harboring the feeling that this seems Too Good to Be True, admits to herself that she wouldn't be able to say no to an offer like this any more than Hajime or his mother can. She ends up imposing herself into the group with Hajime, even though she never met the recently-deceased millionaire at all.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: While many a murder case in this franchise employs this trope as the culprit(s)'s given motive for murder, the girl among the group of mountain hikers who are responsible for Yuika's death stands out: Not only is she the mastermind (so to speak) behind Yuika's death and the first victim in this murder case, the method of execution -- using a chainsaw to kill her and DISMEMBER her body -- is also particularly gruesome as well.
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse: The final murder victim is discovered when Hajime opens a sliding bathroom door, with said victim's body falling out from behind said door, scaring him as a result.
• Powerful Pick: The culprit is shown using a pickax as the murder weapon to kill two intended targets.
• Reactive Continuous Scream:
  • Later in the case arc, Hajime informs Kenmochi that he senses some breeze while the two of them are standing in the hallway, right as a hand touches Hajime's shoulder, causing him to jump and scream in shock, before turning around to see Miyuki, who had screamed in reaction to Hajime's screaming.
    Hajime: M-Miyuki! You surprised me!
    Miyuki: Huh? I'm the one who's surprised!
  • The culprit mentions being rescued by Yuika from a mountain snowstorm during the confession... as well as seeing her wearing only underwear and bra. The culprit screamed in shock at her appearance, which, in turn, caused her to scream upon realizing how much (or little) she was wearing at the time.
• Rescue Romance: The culprit states in the confession of being in a romantic relationship with Yuika after being saved by her in a snowstorm.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Attempted by two people, but thwarted each time.
  • The first time someone tries to do so, all survivors' footwear have already been stolen and hidden. The survivor is then persuaded to give up and remain in the villa after some others bring up the fact that the heavy snowfall makes trekking down the mountain path more dangerous due to both frigid temperature and bad visibility.
  • One of the intended target, upon realizing that he's probably next on the hit-list after two people have become murder victims, decides to take his chance and get out of dodge, but the sight of someone causes him to turn back to the villa in fright shortly before being murdered himself.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: This case arc concludes with Mrs. Kindaichi coming home after having gotten herself a makeover and buying a new dress, which makes her look quite beautiful. However, she still doesn't know at this point that the generous monetary reward turns out to have been a scheme for a serial murder.
  Mrs. Kindaichi: Oh, Mr. Itsuki! Welcome!
  Itsuki: Oh! You're Kindaichi's mother! When did you become a model?
  Mrs. Kindaichi: Ha ha, thank you! I've only gone to a renowned makeup salon! It really makes me look elite, doesn't it? I also used my credit card to buy this dress! I hope it's all right! You better get that money soon, Hajime!
  Itsuki: I assume you haven't told her yet?
  Hajime: I haven't had the heart...
• Snow Means Death:
  • Zigzagged regarding the mountain climber duo, who form the basis of the legend of a mountain climber who became "snow spirit". Seventeen years ago, a mountain climber tried to find his best friend, a fellow mountain climber who got lost in a blizzard in the mountain range that would be the background for the present-day case arc, only to end up lost in the same blizzard himself, never to be seen again. On the other hand, the aforementioned mountain climber's best friend was rescued from the blizzard and survived to the present day, currently working as the caretaker of the villa, though others don't know about his connection to the legend since he keeps it to himself.
  • The mountain hiker divulging the legend of the mountain-climber-turned-snow-spirit, when Hajime asks him, learns of the legend only because a friend of his, who got caught in a snowstorm himself twelve years ago, mentioned it to him in order to keep himself awake and avoid dying from hypothermia while inside a small hut located where the villa is now, but then panicked and fled the hut, alleging he had heard the sound of the snow spirit coming for him. The hiker, alongside the mountain rescue squad, found the hiker's friend two days later, after the snowy weather finally subsided, with said friend having been frozen to death in the snowy weather out in the open and looking like an ice sculpture.
  • Exploited by the group of mountain hikers, who took the extra resources, clothing included, from Yuika and left her in the snowy weather while she was unconscious in order to Make It Look Like an Accident, ensuring that No Good Deed Goes Unpunished as the result.
  • Near the end of the case arc, the culprit tricks Kenmochi, who's the only one monitoring the culprit at the moment, by giving him the slip before escaping from the villa. Given the fact that the culprit isn't properly equipped, Hajime surmises that the culprit intends to die in the still-ongoing snowstorm. Luckily, Hajime and the caretaker of the villa manage to find the culprit unconscious on the snowy ground and make their way back to the villa, turning the culprit's attempt into a Bungled Suicide.
• Tempting Fate:
  • The third intended target, after his failed attempt to escape from the cabin leads him to go back to the villa, claims that he'd lock the door in his room for the rest of the stay until the weather clears up, only to be subdued and killed before he even manages to get back inside.
  • A tragic example took place two years ago, when Yuika was at the Yukiryo Villa talking on the phone with the culprit, who was to visit her soon. The culprit had bought an engagement ring with the intention of giving it to Yuika but kept it secret, wanting it to be a surprise for her, and so tells her "I'll tell you when I get there", only to find her dead after arriving there.
• That Man Is Dead: The culprit claims to have died when Yuika passed away late in the confession, saying that the person who has survived without her since then has a cold-hearted, revenge-seeking soul.
• Tragic Dream: Two such examples, with both of them being this trope because of Yuika's demise.
  • The culprit had planned to propose to her at Yukiryo Villa and actually bought an engagement ring for it, only to find her dead instead.
  • According to Itsuki's investigation after the murder case is wrapped up, the millionaire, having known beforehand of the culprit's intention to propose to Yuika, secretly approved of a proposal for a photo gallery exhibition featuring pictures Yuika, a photographer herself, took of the mountain, with the intention of the exhibition being a wedding present for the culprit. Hajime surmises that the millionaire holds oneself responsible for Yuika's death afterwards and carries the secret all the way to the grave.
• Two Dun It: This is yet another murder case that gets Kindaichi involved where two people are responsible, with the culprit doing the dirty work while one other person functions as the accomplice.
• Unintentional Final Message: In the backstory, the culprit went to Yuika's mother for her permission to hand over the photography equipment Yuika had with her before her demise, and her mother agreed. It was while checking her voice recorder that she always carried with her that the culprit learned of the interaction with the group of four mountain hikers that went unexpectedly awry and doomed Yuika at their hands.^note  This, in conjunction with her camera showing her being fully equipped and heavily clothed and a magazine photo showing some of the hikers wearing heavier clothing that the culprit knew Yuika herself made, firmly clued the culprit in on the full truth behind Yuika's demise.
• Unwitting Pawn: This time, it's Kenmochi who falls into this role, as he turns out to be the one to carry the oil tank containing the murder victim's torso into the room where said victim is staying, not expecting it to contain anything but oil, which allows the killer to proceed with the murder plot. As Hajime comments in The Summation, he would have fallen into this trap himself if he were able to lift that particular oil tank, but he hurt his back trying to do so.