The Black Lizard...
The Armed Detective Agency
was attacked by the Port Mafia's military squad, the Black Lizard.
But Kunikida-san, Yosano-san, and Kenji-kun
crushed the entire team with ease.
Such is the might of the Armed Detective Agency.
Hey, hey, Harunocchi.
Can you take the marble out of this bottle?
Sure, right away.
A marble?
Is this what you wanted, Rampo-san?
Yes.
Marbles are nice, aren't they?
Yes, marbles are nice.
Um, isn't Rampo-san going to help?
Kunikida-kun.
I have to head off to a job soon.
Oh, to assist with a murder case?
Indeed, the police in this city can't capture even a single criminal without my help.
Still...
My Ultra-Deduction is the best ability in this agency...
or even the entire nation.
I guess it's no small wonder that everyone depends on it.
We're indebted to you, Rampo-san.
Good, as long as you're aware.
That's right.
Though you call yourselves a detective agency,
you lot don't have the deductive powers of a single monkey.
The only reason they can call themselves a detective agency and function as one
is my ability, Ultra-Deduction.
Ultra-Deduction is so amazing...
An ability that lets you see right to the heart of any case in an instant.
You are a role model for the Agency... No, for all gifted people.
Of course.
Brat.
Y-Yes?
Never mind the clean-up here.
Go with Rampo-san.
The place's close by train.
M-Me as a detective's assistant?
That's a great responsibility...
Of course not.
I'm not some two-bit detective.
I don't need an assistant.
Then why am I going with you?
Well, see, I don't know how to take the train.
Wow.
Honestly, I was surprised.
He didn't know anything,
including how to buy a ticket,
how to get through the turnstile,
and how to figure out which platform to go to...
Episode 5
I guess he really can't do anything without using his ability.
You're late, agents.
Oh, who are you?
Where is Yasui-san?
Kanagawa Prefecture Police
I'm Minoura.
I took this over from Yasui.
This case has been reassigned to our division.
So we no longer need you or your agency.
How idiotic.
All the difficult cases in the world should be overseen by a great detective as a matter of course.
We won't need a private investigator today.
Because the victim is my subordinate.
A lady.
She was found floating in the river this morning.
She was shot three times in the chest.
We don't know where or when she was killed.
We haven't even found the bullets.
Any suspects?
No.
As far as anyone at the office knew,
she was not in a relationship, either.
Does that mean you don't have any leads?
That is all the more reason why
we can't let some amateur private eye handle this.
Hey!
The nets caught something!
What's that?
We've strung a net across the river to catch any evidence, but...
It's a man!
We have man in the nets!
What?!
Could there be a second victim?
Hello, Atsushi-kun.
What a strange coincidence.
A-Another drowning attempt?
What, committing suicide alone?
That's so passe, Atsushi-kun.
I have come to realize
that if I am to die, I will die with a beautiful lady!
Ah, double suicide...
What a sweet ring it has.
In comparison,
it feels so empty to bid this world farewell all by my lonesome.
So...
I'm currently on the lookout for a beautiful woman who'll die with me!
Huh?
Then what was this about?
I was simply drifting along the river!
I see.
By the way, Atsushi-kun,
what are you doing out here?
I'm on a job.
A job?
What kind?
Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What tragedy...
What great tragedy this is,
that a young beautiful woman in her prime has lost her life...
My sorrow is crushing my heart!
She may as well have committed double suicide with me!
Who the hell is he?
A colleague at the Agency.
That's just how he is.
But rest in peace, milady.
An extraordinary great detective will avenge you.
Right, Rampo-san?
But I have yet to get the job itself.
What?
Why?
Ask this man.
We have no need for private investigators.
In fact, all of my subordinates are far superior to any private detective.
Oh?
What's your name?
What?
I am Sergeant Sugimura.
The victim, Ms. Yamagiwa, was my senior colleague!
All right, Sugimoto-kun.
Solve this case in sixty seconds, starting now.
60 Seconds
What?!
I can solve it in under a minute.
If you're as good as he says you are, you should be able to do the same.
Okay, give it a try, Sugimoto-kun!
What?!
Um, okay, well...
Sixty seconds is a bit over the top, isn't it?!
Okay, fifty seconds left.
What?!
This is what I must be like.
Oh, right.
Yamagiwa-senpai was pursuing a political corruption case
and also investigating the Port Mafia.
I believe the murderer's M.O. is similar to the Mafia's method of exacting retribution.
Maybe she was killed by the mafia members she was investigating—
That's not true.
What?
The Port Mafia's retaliatory methods are as highly specific as a government-issued ID.
First, the traitor is made to bite the curb,
then they kick in the back of his head to shatter his jaw.
As their victim writhes in agony,
they flip him over...
then shoot him in the chest three times.
If we're being precise, yes, but...
So this M.O. is similar to the Mafia's, but not the same.
That means...
An attempt at a cover-up?
Shooting two extra rounds into the body just for that?
How cruel.
Beep!
Okay, time's up!
Too bad, you've got a ways to go before you reach my level.
At the very least, this proved that your subordinates
are not all superior to me.
Cut the crap!
You've been going on and on about deduction and great detectives.
You've been reading too much pulp fiction!
Cases are solved by thorough investigations,
interviewing persons of interest, and analyzing the scene of the crime.
Huh?
When are you going to get it through your thick skull?
Great detectives don't do "investigations."
My ability, Ultra-Deduction, can instantly identify the killer
and when and how the murder was committed.
Furthermore,
I can see in my mind's eye how I can make the killer confess,
and where the evidence lies, as if it's an epiphany.
I am gifted, after all.
Given my line of work,
I know about the gifted's existence.
But if you have such a convenient ability,
why do my colleagues and I still have a job?
Right on!
You've finally caught up.
You bastard!
Now, now, Detective.
Rampo-san's always like this.
Personal Motto:
After all, my personal motto is,
All's Well
That's Well For Me!
"All's well that's well for me!"
Personal Motto:
I've never heard a more convincing personal motto in my life.
What's Better
Than Being Alive?
Personal Motto:
Well, well...
Have a Pure, Cheerful,
and Energetic Suicide
Since you speak so highly of it, let's see this ability of yours.
Oh?
Is that a request for me to take on the case?
You should've just asked me from the start.
Heh, you have a lot of confidence about this difficult case
despite the lack of any evidence.
Want me to count to sixty?
I don't need that long.
Watch closely, Atsushi-kun.
This is the ability that keeps the Agency going.
Once he puts on those glasses,
Rampo-san's Ultra-Deduction is active.
Rampo-san's ability reveals the truth about a case.
Does such a gift really exist?
Ability: Ultra-Deduction!
Ultra-Deduction
I see.
"I see," my ass.
You're trying to imply you know who the killer is?
Of course.
Huh?
The killer...
...is you.
That's right.
The killer...
The killer is you,
Sergeant Sugimoto.
What?
Rampo-san?
Sergeant Sugimoto is my subordinate.
Sergeant Sugimoto is the one who killed her.
Don't be stupid!
It's impossible that the killer would happen to be this close by in the first place!
It's exactly because he is the killer
that he wants to stay close to the investigation.
Besides, didn't I mention this?
I also know where the evidence lies.
Lend me your gun, will you?
Y-You've got to be kidding.
The penalty for handing a government-issue firearm to a civilian
is far worse than a pay cut.
And here I was hoping you'd have a point.
Are you private investigators just talk?
If we examine that gun and come up empty,
then sure, I'm just an idiot running my mouth.
I've had enough of listening to you!
Show him, Sugimoto!
But...
He's barked up this tree as far as he can go.
If we prove him wrong, he'll shut up and go home.
We can't waste any more time.
Show him your gun!
Hey, what's the matter, Sugimoto?
Even in this city,
it isn't easy for an amateur to get spare ammo...
even harder if the firearm is a government-issue.
Why aren't you saying anything, Sugimoto?!
He's thinking furiously right now
about the three bullets he's used,
and how he'll explain their absence.
Sugimoto!
You can't be the killer!
Show us your gun, now!
That's right, Sugimoto.
Not good.
Sugimoto!
Atsushi-kun!
Go!
What?!
Stop!
Let me go!
I have nothing to do with this!
Running away won't help.
The murder took place early yesterday morning
at the abandoned shipyard, 140 meters upstream from here.
How'd you know that?
If we go there, we should be able to find yours and the victim's footprints,
as well as the bloodstains you couldn't fully erase.
How?
No one could've known.
Let's hear the rest back at the office.
It may be the last time it'll be your place of work...
I didn't intend to shoot her.
She...
She was going after a certain politician for corruption.
What they didn't predict
was that she actually found evidence of a major Diet member's crime.
However, the Diet member was savvy
and tried to use a mole inside the police
to get rid of the evidence.
And you're that spy.
I'd always wanted to become a police officer.
After my third time failing the exam, I was depressed.
That was when a man reached out to me,
asking me if I was willing to do anything to become a cop.
After joining the police force with the Diet member's help,
I had to follow his orders in return.
So you killed Yamagiwa as one of his dogs?!
That's not what happened!
I was trying to warn her.
I told her she'd get herself killed if she didn't give up the evidence.
But she...
Yamagiwa-san, he's taking this very seriously.
Then I'll just have to take him very seriously, too.
I've already made contact with a prosecutor I know.
I just need to hand over the evidence.
Sugimoto-kun?
Please hand over the evidence.
If I fail in this,
he'll call a hit man.
We have to stop this, now!
Hand over the gun, Sugimoto-kun.
You can't shoot me.
That's right.
That's why...
I'll choose a different way to force your hand!
Don't!
Sugimoto-kun!
If you do nothing, you'll be convicted as a killer.
You'll be fired from your job.
In a panic, you could only think of one person to go to for help. How ironic.
When you called the Diet member,
he told you how to destroy the evidence.
Just as you were told to, you fired two more shots into her chest
to make it seem like the Mafia's had done it.
You set her adrift in the river to delay discovery.
Where is the evidence Yamagiwa obtained?
That Diet member's responsible for Yamagiwa's death!
Tell me, Sugimoto!
Hey, Sugimoto-kun.
Want me to guess what her final words to you were?
It was "I'm sorry," wasn't it?
I'm... sorry...
You really...
see through everything, don't you.
The evidence is in my desk drawer.
Thanks, I guess.
Also, I'm sorry I doubted your capabilities.
If we run into another difficult case, we'll be asking you for help.
If you need my abilities,
ask me any time.
I'll give you a discount next time.
That'll be helpful.
Rampo-san was amazing.
I had no idea he'd figure everything out.
His ability, Ultra-Deduction, is super amazing.
I might've figured out half of it, too.
Half of what?
About that case just now...
About how Rampo-san figured it out.
Oh, but he said his ability lets him figure it out instantly...
Oh, right, you don't know yet.
Actually, Rampo-san isn't gifted.
Huh?!
Rampo-san is a very rare ungifted civilian at the agency.
He himself seems to believe he's using an ability, but...
Oh, and despite his appearance, he's 26 years old.
What?
The reason why everyone at the Agency respects Rampo-san
is because they know his Ultra-Deduction isn't an ability.
I'd heard of it, myself,
but I only witnessed its power first-hand today.
To tell you the truth,
while he was "using" his Ultra-Deduction ability today,
I was secretly pinching his hair behind him.
As you well know,
I can neutralize anyone's ability if I touch them... I'm anti-gifted.
No gifted can ever use their ability while I am touching any part of them,
no matter how strong their powers may be.
In other words,
his Ultra-Deduction is not an ability.
It's not?
Then how'd he...
It's just deduction, pure and simple.
But how?
He figured out who the killer was in such a short amount of time!
Is mere deduction enough to make such a thing possible?
Right.
I could tell, too, actually.
Remember what Sergeant Sugimoto said?
Shooting two extra rounds into the body just for that?
Illustration
Anyone who saw a body with three gunshot wounds
would assume they were fired at the same time.
Oh...
In other words,
he knew that the victim had perished from the first shot.
How could he have known that before an autopsy?
Only if he was the killer...
But Rampo-san also knew when it happened...
Early yesterday morning.
That's because the body was still in good condition.
So, at most, it'd only been floating in the river for a day.
Yesterday was Tuesday, a weekday.
But the victim wasn't wearing any makeup.
A detective working long hours, often late into the night,
would only be like that on a weekday
if the murder had occurred in the early morning.
I see.
But how did he know about the crime scene's location,
and that she was threatened with a gun?
That, I don't know.
Rampo-san probably caught a lot more details than I could hope to.
That's true.
He even guessed her final words.
Oh, that.
She supposedly wasn't seeing anyone,
but her wristwatch was an overseas brand-name item.
It's not something a single woman would buy for herself.
And Sergeant Sugimoto's watch was the men's version of the same model.
Then they were...
She went to see him early in the morning when he reached out,
without bothering to put on makeup.
And their watches are of the same model...
They were dating.
That's why he couldn't kick her head in,
even though he knew it wouldn't look like the Mafia's work.
The ability to see through all that
would be par for the course if it were an actual ability.
Nothing more, nothing less.
But if it's due to his personal powers of deduction, that's a different story.
He's solved dozens of cases in the past.
In every case,
he was able to instantly determine the truth of the matter with the slimmest of leads.
He's never been wrong, either.
What a great man.
Hey, guide!
I can't find my way back to the Agency on my own, you know!
I think I kind of get it now...
Why everyone at the Agency trusts Rampo-san so much.
All's well that's well for me!
All's Well That's Well For Me
Rampo
What is the Ideal?
Ideal
There are any number of answers to that question.
It is words,
it is thought.
From a moving plan scheduled five years from now
to tonight's dinner menu,
this notebook has everything in life written out in exacting detail.
It represents the entirety of my ideals!
But you really shouldn't show anyone
the page where you've written about who would be the ideal woman.
Next time on Bungo Stray Dogs, Episode 6:
Episode 6 The Azure Messenger
The Azure Messenger.
What's so bad about looking for an ideal woman?!