Recap / The Kindaichi Case Files The Drifting Fire Fox Murder Case

"The Drifting Fire Fox Murder Case" is the third case arc in "The Kindaichi Case Files R" series of The Kindaichi Case Files.

After rediscovering an old photo of a group of scouts (taken when the members were in the third grade), and especially after receiving a telegram about the passing of a girl who was in said group, Kindaichi arrives in Byakko Village, where the other members of the group are gathering, not knowing the deceased girl is only the first casualty in a serial murder...

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Tropes include:

• Bee Afraid: Part of the backstory involves a bee being placed inside a water bottle. It was intended to be a prank, but it turned into a Deadly Prank.
• Catapult Nightmare: The culprit confesses to Kindaichi that he has suffered nightmares, in which he'd witness his mother's dying moment and his father's anger at him for the "bee in a water bottle" Deadly Prank and his parents accusing him of said prank before waking up and feeling shaken by the scene, after his father's words were relayed to him on his deathbed.
• Deadly Prank: Part of the backstory involves the victims, as scout members at the time, placing a bee inside the water bottle of the culprit for refusing to lend his shoelaces to others in a moment of need. It was meant to startle him as payback, but tragedy struck when it was his mother who got stung instead, and she died from fatal allergy-induced anaphylactic shock.
• Drugs Are Bad: Played for Drama. After the death of the culprit's mother, the culprit's father became heavily alcoholic, his relationship with his son got much more distant, and he died from the advanced stage of liver cirrhosis half a year before the main story arc began.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied:
  • Tragically Played for Drama, as the inability on the part of the affected characters to apologize serves to help drive the murder case, which Kindaichi recognizes with sadness at the end of the case arc.
    • Part of the backstory reveals that the culprit had visited the village two months ago and talked to a girl who was part of the scout group to verify the answer about the prank, before the conversation went badly and led to the culprit killing the girl in a fit of rage. The girl's father reveals as the case arc is ending that she told him she did something cruel to the culprit and should apologize to him should she meet him again, which comes as a surprise to the culprit and Kindaichi both because at no point during the culprit's conversation with the girl in question did an apology ever come close to being issued — as the culprit discloses to Kindaichi in his confession, the girl mentioning the prank that ended with a lethal result spoke of the incident with seemingly no trace of remorse.
    • Another part of the backstory goes that, the culprit refused to lend his shoelaces to others in a moment of need because his family was having trouble financially and he got his shoes new as birthday present, and so he didn't want to part with them. Sadly he manages to apologize for it only after having already committed the murders.
  • This trope applies to Kindaichi himself as the case arc is concluding, for he finds it too personal to disclose to others the truth about the murders, especially since he still regards the culprit as a friend, even though he can't just "forgive and forget". As the result, the facts he divulges freely are the parts that don't inform others of the guy being the culprit^note  (e.g. he claims the extra lantern for the sendoff ritual is for the culprit's deceased mother without disclosing how she died, and his statement to the other former scout members noticing the culprit is staying behind instead of leaving with them is that he "left behind some of his belongings at the village").
• Flashback B-Plot: The entire case arc is presented this way, as the past of the incidents from the scout group and the aftermaths of said incidents are littered across the present-day story-line at various junctures.
• I Didn't Mean to Kill Him:
  • The victims as scout members back then put a bee inside the culprit's water bottle as payback for refusing to help them in a moment of need. They didn't intend to kill anyone with this prank, but it turned into a Deadly Prank when the culprit's mother got stung by the bee and died from fatal allergy-induced anaphylactic shock.^note  Possibly played with in this case, as the victims never find out the effects their prank caused on their target or his family before the culprit kills them.
  • Two months prior to the main events of the case arc, the culprit talked with a girl among the group being responsible for the Deadly Prank. The conversation went wrong and the culprit, triggered by the memories of his mother's death and his father's anger at him, stabbed her dead in a moment of rage.
• Ironic Echo: As the culprit is about to leave with the local police due to the police suspecting him of the murders^note  (his status is "suspected" because Kindaichi has kept his discoveries and the culprit's confession strictly between himself and the culprit), the culprit turns to Kindaichi to say goodbye to him. The image of the culprit's facial expression at the moment jolts Kindaichi to his memory of the culprit donning the same expression he showed as a relatively more happy-go-lucky scout member years ago, which, if anything, depresses Kindaichi further over the tragic scope of this case arc as a whole.
• Minor Major Character: After having Kindaichi cleaning his room alongside herself that causes Kindaichi to find the group photo of the scouts being taken six years ago and receiving the telegram she gives to Kindaichi that prompts him to take the trip to the village where the case arc unfolds, both of which happen right at the start of the case arc, Miyuki is entirely absent.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Among the murder victims in this case, two of them — both female — are sisters by marriage through their respective parents wedding each other three years ago. Their parents are left bereft of their daughters by the time the case arc ends.
• Playing with Fire: During the time as a scout, Kindaichi managed to make the snake that had bitten a girl leave by spraying insect spray through a lit lighter at the snake — the flammable elements of the insect spray passing through the fire from the lighter caused a blaze similar to the effect of a flamethrower and scared the snake away.
• Plot-Triggering Death: The death of the first victim, which occurred two months prior to the main story, sets the plot in motion.
• Posthumous Character: The first victim died two months before the main story-line takes place. She also serves as Plot-Triggering Death, as it was her murder that has set the story arc going the way it does.
• Reunion Revenge: The reunion among the former scout members turns out to serve as the culprit's tool of revenge for the prank that turned unintentionally deadly and wrecked his home life as the result.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Downplayed. Part of the backstory involves one of the girls in the group of scouts being bitten by a — thankfully non-venomous — snake and the incident helps to cause the entire story arc to take place the way it has been (up to and including the serial murder case), but the snake in question did so only because the girl in question had wandered too close to it at the time without noticing it until she was bitten.