Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions Episode 12 Recap & Review

The Case of the Yadagami-sama Murders (Part 1)

Episode 12 of Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions begins with our old friend Spitz making a comeback. Ron and Isshiki discuss if Ron should help Spitz find his family and Isshiki speaks in favour. Ron tells Isshiki to inform Spitz himself since he’s been tailing Isshiki. Spitz says that he has also bugged Isshiki.

After the opening credits, Spitz and Isshiki arrive at Ron’s apartment. Isshiki is surprised to see furniture there. Spitz looks a little put-off, and Isshiki wonders why. Ron believes it’s because of his condition to help Spitz. Ron asks Spitz to retrieve the files from BLUE’s vaults about the Bloody Training Incident in exchange for finding about his missing family. Ron already has a copy from the Scotland Yard, but an important piece of information is missing.

Ron further adds this condition of hypnosis might be medically affected. He has no memory of three hours during his treatment after the incident. There are no records of that time so it could be possible that something happened then.

Isshiki feels it is not an equal exchange that Ron is offering. To this Ron says that the chances of finding Spitz’s family are slim. The two argue a little more but are interrupted by Spitz’s gratitude speech. He agrees to get the files for Ron. The trio heads to Yamanashi region.

On their way to the Yadamura village, Spitz gives a little history about his brother who was an ethnologist. His brother used to frequent the village. His brother disappeared eleven years ago while Spitz was still studying. Just then Isshiki hears a rustle of leaves and sees the white tail of a snake disappear into the bushes. Ron follows a sound and the trio reaches a waterfall.

There, they see a woman standing aloof but she runs away the moment she notices some company. Ron spots a shrine near the waterfall, next to where the woman is standing. An axe flies out, almost hitting Isshiki. A trio of shady looking men approach, offering their apologies.

As Spitz, Ron and Isshiki arrive at the village, they see a commotion of villagers. Spitz introduces himself and the group the mayor. Ron asks about the commotion and the mayor replies it is about a government dam construction project which would need the villagers to move out.

The villagers shout that Yadagami-sama won’t allow this to happen. Muroi, an ethnologist, explains that the characters for Yadagami-sama read as “night snake god”, a deity who is believed to have protected the village for ages. The government official leaves but not before saying that he will return the next day to carry out initial surveys for the dam project.

The mayor takes Spitz, Ron and Isshiki to his house to stay for the night since the government official is staying at the guest hut. It begins raining heavily soon after. The woman they saw at the waterfall was Ms Mii, the mayor’s granddaughter.

At dinner, Spitz explains a little more about his brother’s disappearance. His brother went to sleep at the guest hut but was missing the next morning. No one had seen him and there was no sign of him in the mountains as well.

Isshiki looks out the room and sees a snake-like silhouette. The snake figure looks like it has wrapped around someone. Isshiki, Ron and Spitz rush to the hut, where they inspect the surroundings. When they go in, they hear a thud but see no one there.

The next morning, the government official is found in the waterfall stream. He’s also declared dead of unnatural causes. There were snake-scale-like marks around his neck.

The police arrive at the scene and bring the body out. Isshiki reads the cause of death from his phone. The official died because of a blow to his head after falling in the basin, and no weapon was found to denote the strangulation.

The mayor tells the trio that it is Yadagami-sama who did it. Just then Ms Mii comes running over reminding the mayor that outsiders are not allowed at the waterfall. The mayor says he gave them the persmission because of the official’s case.

Isshiki and Spitz are introduced as detectives, but when it came to Ron’s introduction, Spitz said that he collects rare wrapping papers with Ron. Ron asks what Ms Mii was doing at the waterfall earlier. She says she was making an offering to the shrine for village protection, as goes the tradition. Every villager strongly believes that the official’s fate was a divine intervention.

Ron signals Isshiki and Spitz to leave. On their way back, he says that such a grouped ideology can resemble a mass hypnosis state. Muroi, the ethnologist from earlier, intercepts their path. He speaks a little about living gods in villages and Yadagami-sama’s tale is like no other. The deity possesses a power of vanishment.

Fifteen years ago, all heavy machinery for a dam project had disappeared. When one spends a long time in the village it is impossible to not feel the deity’s power. He says that he is beginning to be enamoured by the deity’s power.

Ron asks him where he was during the rains the previous night. Muroi was apparently at the temple where Yadagami-sama is enshrined. The temple holds shed skin of a snake, including eyes and fangs. There are many scrolls and manuscripts about the deity as well, but the temple was closed yesterday so he returned to the Suzuki house where he has been staying.

Ron, Spitz and Isshiki return to the hut. They go over the events from the previous night until the inspector clears the space. There’s no ways of going in or out other than the door. There was nothing out of place at the location.

Ron’s black sugar syrup bottle is lying on the tatami mats. It came there from the previous night when Ron and others rushed in. Spitz goes into a spiral of thoughts and begins to think that the deity might have taken his brother away. He gets nostalgic about his brother and just then, sees a white snake at the river. However, Ron and Isshiki don’t see anything.

Ron connects the dots soon, and sees the snake-scale pattern on the tatami mats. He announces that Detective Isshiki (meaning himself) has solved the case and the end credits roll in.

The Episode Review

Well, that was a change from the usual cases! Religion, faith and belief can prove a challenge when trying to make changes to a geography or bring in new developments. We see that in this episode, but it seems that it not about religion but an orchestrated fanaticism perhaps. Detective Isshiki and Ron will tell us the truth next week which is also the finale!