The second volume of Tantei Gakuen Q ended with Kyu and co. figuring out the case that happened on Kirisaki Island. The perpetrator there was actually Dan Morihiko himself and the case itself was simply the final part of the entrance exam. Figuring out the case allowed our main characters Kyu, Ryu, Megumi, Kazuma and Kinta to join the legendary retiring detective Dan Morihiko's Dan Detective School, and what's more, all five of them get to join the Q-Class (Qualified Class) which is directly taught by Dan Morihiko himself as he plans to find himself a worthy successor out of one of the five members of the Q-Class.
The first chapter of the third volume focuses on introducing us to the school's structure of DDS and the beginning of the volume also happens to build up to the next big case that lasts up to the 2nd to last chapter of the 4th volume. I like how well the overarching story has flown so far from case to case.
The Dan Detective School is actually a massive apartment with different classes, however the Qualified Class is in the woods, in the middle of nowhere nearby. The classroom for Q-Class is in an old apartment that's almost like a haunted house, but there's more to the story as the old worn-out apartment was the office of Dan Morihiko 40 years prior when he left the police force to become a private eye.
The Qualifies Class's classroom has a lot of sentimental value with Dan Morihiko himself as he remembers the times a skilled detective used to assist him as a partner and they solved many dangerous cases. Dan says that during a criminal investigation this skilled detective died, and if he were alive this day there would be no Q-Class as that detective would be his successor instead.
The second real case in the series is then referred from the police to Dan Morihiko, who then asks the Q-Class to solve it. The case is another intriguing one as it happened in a small, isolated village where several students went to, but suddenly one of them disappeared. The scene left was baffling as this student vanished into thin air on the spot. To solve this case is the first job of the Q-Class, and if they're not able to do it, the A-Class would get the case. Dan himself had already figured it out but he uses it as an exam in the school.
In DDS there's a Simulation Room with a slide project and models that are used to recreate the crime scene in the room. Sometimes the school uses a moving background to create the scene a more realistic feel. What's more, there is also a dojo where students train to defend themselves with martial arts like karate and judo. There's also a Computer Room with the latest models (like Windows 95 computers or something.. lol), and a Makeup Studio where the students practice disguising with rubber masks and wigs, a forensics lab with a fake corpse that is used to estimate the time of death.
The Kamikakushi Village Disappearance case
Some people may be aware of Kamikakushi from series like Higurashi no naku koro Ni. It means to be spirited away or disappear without a trace all of a sudden. It's part of Japanese folk tales. The authors are making the name of the village symbolize the case itself in which the student disappeared.
Anyway, in Kyu and co. get to become more familiar with the disappearance case in the Simulation Room. According to the police files, the friend of the missing student took pictures in Kamikakushi Village and sent them to the police. The DDS will use those photos with a projector to simulate the case.
The village has paddy fields that haven't been planted and it's very isolated place. The photographs show footprints that go to the middle of the muddy fields only to disappear in the middle of the field without a trace of going further.
The footprints started from underneath the window of the missing student's room. It's as though someone lured him out to the middle of the field and then snatched him from the heavens. When the footprints were discovered, the student's disappearance was not yet confirmed so no reports to the police were made yet. However the villagers started saying that "another person was spirited away because he violated the Taboo."
The footprints to the paddy field were first discovered at 7 A.M., before breakfast. Last time the student was seen was at 10 o'clock the previous night. The farmers went to the field by dawn at around 5 A.M. and didn't notice a thing.
Could it be that the student was murdered and the culprit intentionally created this disappearing footprint setup in order to make it seem as if the student was 'Spirited Away' if the villagers are so superstitious folk that they believe old legends?
More hints to the case are the disappeared student's luggages which contained the following: a compass, thermos, cell phone, swiss army knife, a flashlight, a book of treasure hunting & guide, rrope, a camera, a shovel, a safety jacket, a folded rubber raft with plastic oar and a pump and a sleeping bag.
After figuring out how the footprints were created the Q-Class are given the DDS Detective Notebook. The notebook gives the students authorization to enter any crime scene. The notebooks have the D.D.S. logo and symbol on it and it would be bad if it got stolen or if it disappeared. What's more the notebook has more to it: it contains an area for notes as well as seven tools: a fingerprint kit, a multipurpose knife, a database for deciphering simple passwords, lock picks, etc.
The reason why the students are given the notebook is because their first task as students of DDS is now to leave for Kamikakushi Village and its neighbor, the Hyotan Village in which 7 people have disappeared in the past 10 years. To get to Kamikakushi Village, one has to walk from Hyotan Village for 30 minutes through a tunnel.
So, along with the disappearing student case the Q-Class has to figure out what happened to six other disappeared people- who and why did they get "Spirited Away."
People of Kamikakushi & Hyotan Village
This is not a normal rural area. Rumours say that because of a strange cult that believes in the God of Disease of epidemics as well as a legend about an old treasure from the Japanese Army, the Kamikakushi Village has become a popular topic to be talked about online.
Hyotan Village on the other hand is filled with TV program personnel who are included as the case cast. To enter Kamikakushi village everyone is forced to wear white masks with holes in them or they're risking themselves of being spirited away.
The Case Cast of the Kamikakushi Village Murders case
A group of people with white masks with holes in them play a prank on Kyu and co. to scare them. Ryu explains to us that the masks are supposed to showcase Smallpox disease. Smallpox is a plague that's been around since ancient times and it causes the victim's body to be riddled with pus-filled lesions. Most people inflicted by Smallpox die. Even though the disease was beaten in 1980's with the Smallpox vaccine apparently many large countries have still used the virus as a biochemical weapon. We also get to learn more about Ryu's character as he explains that researching diseases and poisons is his hobby. In this case we get properly introduced to the cast of characters to get to know them. The cast has personnel from the 'Adventure' program and goes as follows:
Azegami Rio (25), TV Reporter
Iwashimizu Hiroki (42), TV Producer
Anzai Kunihiko (29), TV Director
Oowada Susumu (32), TV Cameraman
Kagami Rei (25), Assistant Director
Each of the TV personnel are there to hunt for the legendary treasure and tension riles up between each of them as they consider each other rivals in the hunt.
But there are also more case characters of course:
Kuruzumi Kogoro (58), the Owner of Ryozanbaku Inn who explains that not even the villagers of Hyotan are allowed to enter Kamikakushi Village if they don't wear those creepy white masks the TV personnel used to scare our main characters.
Fuma Mio (17), Ryozanbaku Inn Hostess
Kirihara Masae (60), Ryozanbaku Inn Hostess
Kuruzumi Ryou (25), Branch Manager of Ryozanbaku Inn
What I like is that now three volumes in the story we finally get reminder name plates for the same case-only characters in multiple chapters.
So, the Q-Class this time has to figure out the mysteries including a small villages with a disease cult that wears a strange mask, a japanese army treasure, and the mysterious disappearances in Kamikakushi Village. The latest victim disappeared from the Ryozanbaku Inn annex in Kamikakushi Village, and that village itself is isolated from outside world and only accessible through a tunnel connecting from Hyotan Village.
Things of course aren't going to be that simple as the actual murders of the case begin, but before the first victim falls to the killer attacking her with a sickle, we get to learn of a clue showing the Infinity sign, or the Moebius Strip sign, that is supposed to be a hint towards the treasure or the missing student. Later on, the group manages to find the first victim hidden, buried in a grave with a skeleton, and then it doesn't take longer for another person to vanish - to get Spirited Away. The common line between all these disappearances and murders is the fact that they know the truth behind the mystery of the villages and the treasure before meeting their fate.
The third volume to the Kamikakushi Murder Case ends with the second murder being shown. It's a really intriguing one: one of the TV personnel is filming himself trying to find the legendary war treasure but as he was passing the fields, all of a sudden the camera shows the ground getting further and further away as if he started flying.'
Is the second murder a person being spirited away or just a person being lured into a deadly trap so that his body would never be found?
The third volume is a decent collection of numerous classic mysteries although we only got an answer to the first missing footprints mystery in the build-up case to the Kamikakushi Village Murders Case, and this case is a reeeally long one. In total it takes up almost two volumes. I'm not really the biggest fan of cases that are this long as the novelty does wear off but I hope the next volume brings something interesting to the table.
The most notable mysteries in the Kamikakushi Murders Case include the mystery of the ancient army war treasure, the mystery of people being spirited away, the mystery of the disease cult and the mystery of how the 2nd victim was made to fly.
I actually immediatelly see through the trick that's being done with the Hyotan and Kamikakushi villages, the foreshadowing makes it too obvious, but I hope the rest of the mysteries and how it all connects together will impress me. The mystery of the villages is actually something that would impress people who don't think of it as it's a cool trick in of itself. A similar type of trick was done in Zero Time Dilemma which is the final game of the Zero Escape trilogy.
One funny thing I noticed is that after the first corpse is found in the grave, we got police to arrive to the crime scene to investigate but they just disappear without doing anything in this volume.
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