Tantei Gakuen Q / Detective School Q Volume 4 (F22-30) Review

Kamikakushi Village Murder Case

Volume 4 of Seimaru Amagi's and Fumiya Sato's Detective School Q / Tantei Gakuen Q series continues the Kamikakushi Village Murders Case that started in the beginning of the third volume and end in the second to last chapter of the 4th volume. The case deals with people looking for a Japanese War Treasure in the Kamikakushi village where seven people have gone missing in the past 10 years. The legends of the neighbouring village, Hyotan, as well as Kamikakushi village, say that these people have been Spirited Away for not wearing the holy masks that represent smallpox disease.
What's more, as our main characters, Kyu and co., visit the villages, people start to go missing but at the same time our main characters immediately figure out what's happening and manage to trace the location of where the bodies have been dumped. But the main theme is that the culprit is trying to make anyone who attemps to find the Japanese War Treasure, vanish, or become 'Spirited Away'.

Because of certain symbolistic rules between the Kamikakushi and Hyotan villages, the case cast is split into two between these two places. Megumi and Ryu investigate the Kamikakushi village while Ryu, Kinta and Kazuma stay in Hyotan village. In both villages bodies turn up and there seems to be a closer connection with the events but the most likely culprit is hiding behind a strong alibi.

In this volume we learn that the Japanese military used to create biological weapons in the villages in the past, but that doesn't really give us much more than insight to the motive of the culprit. The Kamikakushi village has a priest named Kyoso-sama who is the ringleader of a cult honoring a god named Ekigami-sama. Kyoso-sama is not only hiding his face but also mysteriously talks with sign language and wears gloves. Ryu and Megumi suspect the priest to be the culprit (as the priest seems to be able to foretell when murders happen) but as the priest is living in a house in the village and no one has seen him leave the Kamikakushi village (even if they don't know the priest by face there are guards by the tunnel). The way the priest is handled makes for an interesting case of the authors circumventing Megumi's photographic memory ability.

The Third Victim
Unlike the first and second victims, the third victim is not spirited away. Instead he is found stabbed right in the heard by a kitchen knife in the Hyoutan village. The trick behind how the culprit did this murder is the main thing about this case and it's about creating an alibi with a grander scale misdirection. I've known the answer to this trick since the case began in the 3rd volume but trying to figure out the right suspect is still fun in this case as it doesn't flat out imply one character to be able to do it. There were more hints to the culprit than I thought but personally wasn't really feeling it from a realistic standpoint. 

Here are my thoughts about the Kamikakushi Village Murders Case that took place for nearly two volumes:
1) The answer to the ancient army war treasure was interesting but I kind of didn't get where it's supposed to be at all. (It seems to be a triangle instead of a "8"?)
2) The answer to people being Spirited Away was cool enough and it was found out halfway through the case pretty much. I like these spirited away horror folk stories like what happened in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni due to their rural atmosphere.
3) The answer to the mystery of the disease cult was okay.
4) The answer to making the 2nd victim fly before being spirited away was ok with cool aspects to it. I think that assuming everything to go down so perfectly just to keep up the idea of people being spirited away is way too coincidental and unnatural, but the way the kill itself was done after the trick is kind of nice idea, it's different but simple.
5) The mystery of the two villages was something I immediately saw through when the case began because of how my mind works, so I can't properly rate it, but I thought it was neat, but there was too much foreshadowing to it back-to-back, the hints should have been more spread out as it's the big reveal of the case.
6) The identity of the culprit and the killer's motivations were not that great, but it's whatever. It was properly done for what it is but not realistic at all. The culprit moving victims around and the disguise stuff were iffy as well. The alibi trick was uninspired but the mystery of the two villages being used for it was the best part of the case. However I will say that at least the motivation was different from what the norm, but maybe there's a reason for that as it's more of a hit or miss type of motivation that was used here. I think it missed for me.
7) The history of the villages and the biological weapon were interesting but mostly because of the Corona virus outbreak in the world that's going down at the moment. In this case we deal with a government creating the Smallpox virus .
8) The last stretch of the case was kind of too long for my taste and seemed to repeat what was already said. The case was honestly too long. Nearly two entire volumes were used for it. Some chapters should have been trimmed down. I think we didn't learn anything new for 3 whole chapters at the end, that's Kindaichi level pacing (yes I know the author is the same).
9) I think Ryu should have had more to do with the ending.

The last chapter of the 4th volume takes the Q-Class back to Dan Detective School where they get praises and lectures from Dan Morihiko. One of the interesting aspects of this is when Dan tells them to never show off the DDS notebook (which gives them authorization to enter any crime scene), the reason being that any criminal would most likely target them if they knew a real detective was on the case. The last chapter also introduces us a new interesting character named Kotaro Nanami. A man with a white suit and a hat who seems to be good at disguising and deductions. Nanami has been trailing the Q-Class in the Kamikakushi Village case. The volume ends without continuing to the next volume this time. Hopefully we'll get some breather short cases next after such a loooong case.