Screams from the Dead

Screams from the Dead
General information
Case #	1
Initial release date	11th May 2021
Main characters	Kindaichi Hajime Nanase Miyuki
Case chronology
← Preceded by	Succeeded by →
-	The Seventh Curse

Screams from the Dead is a case featured in The Kindaichi Case Files as the first case of the series.

Plot

Invited by drama club advisor Ogata Natsuyo to a hotel in Uta Island for the club’s rehearsal of the play “The Phantom of the Opera” regarding the upcoming High School Drama Contest, Kindaichi and Miyuki headed to a yacht as they met up with the other members and embarked on the journey. At the hotel, as the club practised their play over the day, they eventually headed back to their own corresponding rooms to rest. Yet, in the dead of night, a scream came from the hotel’s theater. As the group quickly ran to the theater, Kindaichi opened the lights, only to witness a horrible scene of one of their club members’ dead body, Orie Hidaka, crushed by a giant spotlight from the theater’s ceiling. The sight immediately made Miyuki faint, before being brought back to her own room by Kindaichi to rest. As Kindaichi asked the club’s lead actress Saotome Ryoko to take care of his best friend, Kindaichi went back to the crime scene again for inspection.

He then found a mysterious card next to Hidaka’s corpse, depicting a drawing of a mask and the signature, reading “The Phantom of the Opera”. A chill ran down Kindaichi’s spine as he found out that Hidaka’s death was totally identical to the death in the drama club’s play, thus suspecting that her death was actually a murder based on the Opera Phantom play planned by a malicious culprit.

His suspicion was proved right after Kindaichi witnessed a sharp knife cut at the rope previously holding the spotlight, meaning that someone had cut the rope. He then decided to flag three people from the club to his suspect list: Ms Ogata herself, Saotome and club technician Arimori Yuji, who all did not have any alibi for Hidaka’s murder as they all rested and slept in their own rooms. As Kindaichi’s investigation proceeded, a strange man claiming to be a police officer denied Kindaichi from continuing investigating his friend’s death.

The inspector then introduced himself as Kenmochi Isamu from the metropolitan police before yelling at Kindaichi due to him messing up the crime scenes. As Kindaichi still determined to find out the truth behind his friend Hidaka’s death, he talked Inspector Kenmochi into letting Kindaichi become his sidekick, to which Kenmochi had to accept due to Kindaichi’s insistent attitude. Kindaichi then continued to ask the hotel’s owner, Kurosawa Kazuma, for more information regarding the theater room itself before finding a picture of Arimori and Hidaka with Hidaka’s face crossed out. As Arimori explained, Kindaichi found out that Hidaka was not as nice as she seemed because, per Arimori, she befriended Arimori merely due to his wealthy family, and even intended to take advantage of him for her own interests. Not only that, Ms Ogata also had some troubles with Hidaka because the latter totally failed in performing her role in the play, leading Ms Ogata to recruit a better actress for the club to replace the victim.

Just right after the interrogations, Kindaichi heard the screams coming from Miyuki’s room, which she and Saotome were in. As the detective, along with Kenmochi accidentally meeting up earlier, headed inside, they found Miyuki and Saotome cornered in front of a mysterious figure in a black cloak and a white mask, holding a silver knife aiming at Saotome. Before the figure could do anything, Kindaichi and Kenmochi quickly grabbed them, yet the duo still let loose and made the black figure escape via the window.

As Kenmochi and Kindaichi calmed Saotome down, who was still shocked after the events happened, Miyuki revealed that she had seen a weird stone on top of the nearby hill from the window. Thinking that it was suspicious, Kindaichi continued to investigate and find out that the stone was in fact a grave of Kurosawa Mina, Mr Kurosawa’s daughter. Per Kurosawa, his dear daughter has passed away due to a sudden heart attack. Furthermore, she dropped dead right at the stage where Hidaka was murdered. Eventually, after helping Inspector Kenmochi retrieve his police notebook, which held worthy information considering the murder, Kindaichi found out the real culprit hiding behind the black cloak of the Opera Phantom - Arimori.

Keeping denying accusations until Kindaichi showed all the irrefutable proofs, Arimori eventually admitted to his crimes. Arimori explained that he was actually the boyfriend of Tsukishima Fuyuko, the deceased acting star of the Fudo High’s drama club. As being shocked at the name being brought back, Miyuki explained to Kindaichi that Fuyuko was the leading actress with the genius acting skills, yet she decided to end her life after the accident in the Chemistry lab, where Fuyuko’s face was destroyed by a falling bottle of sulfuric acid. As Arimori did not believe the accident, he decided to start investigating the true motive behind, and eventually found out that it was Hidaka and Saotome who set the trap in the lab. Saotome then panicked and explained that their initial motive was just to humiliate Fuyuko with an acid burn on her skirt, yet the prank unintentionally went too far. Pissed at Saotome’s reasoning, unexpectedly, Arimori charged at the girl, intending to strangle Saotome to death for revenge. Yet, before Arimori could succeed in killing Saotome who had made his girlfriend’s life hell, Kenmochi, thinking fast, ran up to Arimori and punched right at his abdomen, making him fall unconscious and saving Saotome from being killed in the nick of time.

As the case finished, Ms Ogata and Inspector Kenmochi, who headed to the Fudo High himself, thanked Kindaichi for helping the police solve the crimes. Saotome was also taken to the police for interrogation of Fuyuko’s past incident, to which she totally admitted. After all the events, Kindaichi, Miyuki, Kenmochi and Ms Ogata headed to Fuyuko’s grave to deliver a letter from Arimori, telling her to enjoy the best life in the heavens.

Suspects

Ogata Natsuyo

Saotome Ryoko

Arimori Yuji

Kenmochi Isamu

Kurosawa Kazuma

Killer's Profile

• The killer watches The Phantom of the Opera.
• The killer eats instant ramen.
• The killer knows music.
• The killer wears sunglasses.
• The killer is male.

Crime Scenes

Theater Room	Curtains	Theater Room Bonus
Victim's Room	Desk	Victim's Room Bonus
Hotel Exterior	Hill	Hotel Exterior Bonus