The Kindaichi Case Files/Tear Jerker

Being a Mystery Murder Genre, it's inevitable that Kindaichi series is full of this. Warning: spoilers are not hidden!

File Series

The Opera House Murder Case

• The murderer's backstory and motive. A while ago, the jealous upperclassman Ryoko Saotome greatly envied the beautiful and talented Fuyuko Tsukishima for her role as Christine, and coerced the similarly jealous Orie Hidaka and Harumi Kiryuu into a prank to scare Fuyuko with sulfuric acid (they only intended to burn a small part of her clothes). The prank went wrong and Fuyuko stumbled into the shelf with sulfuric acid in the science room, disfiguring her face and causing her to be hospitalized with her (unknown to everyone) boyfriend and fiance Yuuji Arimori staying by her side. Though Fuyuko managed to slowly recover, she and Arimori heard the three girls, having shown remorse for their action, whispering that Fuyuko too kind for not reporting them to the teachers. This greatly shocked both Arimori and Fuyuko, but the latter still told Arimori to not attack the girls. A few days later, Fuyuko jumped off the hospital roof to her death while exposing her disfiguring face to the her friends who tried to stop her, driving off Arimori's revenge plot. Fuyuko's death also caused both Orie and Harumi to have a Heel Realization for what they had done on her, with both of them holding on the guilt in their even until they were killed by Arimori.

• The murderer himself, Yuuji Arimori, is actually one of Hajime's closest friends. Once he realized that Fuyuko didn't want the revenge at all and actually had long forgiven the three girls, he shoved Ryoko, the last target, off the way of the arrow trap trajectory and got shot by it himself. His final words toward Hajime was that he hoped to be together with Fuyuko again in the heaven, but may not be able to as he had to serve his punishment in hell for his crime. Hajime was crying while hugging Arimori in his arms until the end.

• Miss Ogata, the group's music teacher and drama club adviser, was not involved or responsible for Fuyuko's death at all, yet she was the third victim because she accidentally discovered Arimori's trick that he had used during Orie's murder. Even Arimori himself had to admit that he crossed Moral Event Horizon when he murdered her in the heat of moment.

• Even Ryoko, the Alpha Bitch who narrowly avoided her death, was also heavily traumatized not only by the the fact that she was responsible for the death of Fuyuko (who had forgiven her), Orie, Harumi, and Miss Ogata, but also drove Arimori to the deep end, with her shown to cry and have a massive My God, What Have I Done? as Miyuki comforting her. The Official Guidebook revealed that she dropped out of the school, threw away her dream as an actress, and devoted her remaining life as a volunteer who helped people in various nursing homes as well as visiting Fuyuko and Arimori's grave every years on their death anniversary to atone for her sin.

• And there was also the death of Mika Kurosawa, the hotel's owner daughter, which will be detailed in the Second Opera Case below.

R Series

Murderer, Inspector Kenmochi

• Riku Busujima, the apparent mastermind behind Marina Togami's death and the murderer of the cases. In the past, he was an unpopular student due to his Face of Thug and believed to be a gangster by his peers. Moreover, Riku was continuously bullied by Tamaki, the son of a rich hospital owner that was a client of Riku's family's medical factory, and Tamaki's lackey Uozaki. Riku beared the pressure and resolved to study hard and become a doctor to support his family, with no one but his secret crush Marina knew about his through self. Riku became a good friend with Marina and soon came to love her, but chose to not tell her about his true feeling since Marina was in a relationship and engaged with a young handsome police inspecter Reiji Aoi. However, Tamaki and Uozaki caught up with the two relationship, and kidnapped Marina to rape and sexually tortured her, using the apartment that Riku once rented but was forced to rent it out to them. Once Riku noticed that Marina had been missing for a while, he went to search for her everywhere, including his rented apartment, which although he found the two he didn't see Marina (who was being held under the water inside the tub while being forced to give oral sex to Uozaki). Marina, hearing Riku's voice, tried to call for his help through the apartment window, and, in a struggle with Tamaki, fell down to her death. Riku, devastated by the event, attacked Tamaki, but was eventually convinced by him that since the accident occured at his apartment, no one would believe that he was innocent. Believing in Tamaki's words, and further convinced that even Marina believed that he was among the culprits who raped and confined her after the police found a small angel keychain being held in Marina's hand as a dying message pointing to him, Riku accepted being the crime scapegoat in exchange for Tamaki's family to continue supporting his family's business. However, as soon as Tamaki was released on a bait, he immediately fled to America without telling his father about the situation, resulting in his father's hospital cutting off all the business with Riku's factory, with the factory eventually shut down and Riku's father having gone missing or possibly had even committed suicide out of shame. After hearing about the situation, Riku tried to appeal through Lawyer Komori, whose daughter was admitted to Tamaki's family's hospital. In order for Komori's daughter to receive a proper surgery, he needed Tamaki's father's recommendation, thus he threw away Riku's testimony and instead told him that Kenmochi, who was the case main inspector and Marina's Kendo teacher, rejected his appeal, causing Riku to fell into despair and eventually became seduced by Takato(who disguised himself as a priest)'s words of vengeance(who did it out of spite for Kenmochi capturing him back in Hong Kong Case), culminating in him murdering Tamaki and Uozaki the same way they tortured Marina, setting up Kenmochi as the murderer, and eventually, committed suicide to atone for Marina as he had no reason to live.
• Really, everyone involved with the case was heavily affected by Marina's death. Kenmochi and his wife Kazue (who was always shown to be an upbeat Tsundere wife), were full of sadness and anger toward Marina's attackers, as she was Kenmochi's pupil who they treated as she was like their daughter, Lawyer Komori received his own end of Laser Guided Karma as his little girl didn't make it through despite the surgery (this bit is removed in the anime, making it a bit vague about her survival), Marina's fiance and boyfriend vowed to never forgive them, and Marina's sister Erina and their parents were so traumatized that whenever Erina saw her sister's attacker she lapsed into a brief BSOD (and a more psychotic but understandable one when she witnessed their death).

House of Games Case

• Kozue Kikukawa. When she was five years old, her father divorced with her mother who raised her by herself, despite working as a tight scheduled owner of a film production crew. When she was in high school, her mother suffered a bankrupt and debt resulted from an accident on the film set and was placed under arrest after working on a scam to cover the debt. Losing a will to live, her mother went to the Sea of Trees and committed suicide, leaving her alone with the duty of paying the massive amount of debt as she had no other known relative. The debt ballooned after she was tricked by a jerkass boyfriend, with her having more or less losing any reason to live behind her Stepford Smiler status, but still able to thank to the support of her boss at the bar she worked and her friendly co-worker (who also had a crush on her).
• The Shimomura mother and son are just a rich but loving family of two, with them being murdered for no reason but for the killer's goal of getting their fortune to her daughter (since the son is a half-sibling to the daughter through the killer's ex-husband). The anime added a bit of Adaptational Villainy to the mother, with her having an affair with the killer's ex-husband and stealing him from her in the past, but even this is still pretty much Disproportionate Retribution.
• Disregarding the above Disproportionate Retribution, the killer Mika Mugibayashi's motive is this as well. Her identity is Kozue's Missing Mom Sanae who supposedly had committed suicide 11 years ago after suffered from debt and being wanted by a police. When she was about to committed a suicide, she discovered a skeleton of the real Mika who killed herself sometime before. Seeing that she and Mika had the same age, Sanae decided to undergo a plastic surgery and live a new life under Mika's identity (and in the manga, killing the doctor who performed the surgery to silence him), abandoning all the debt as well as Kozue. She eventually managed to rebuild her life and built a successful bar. However, Kozue came to work at the bar sometime later in order to gather money to pay her debt. After hearing about her daughter tragic life (with Kozue didn't know her true identity yet) as a result of her actions, Sanae had a silent version of My God, What Have I Done?

Sanae (as Mika): So you don't have any relative at all?

Kozue: Yeah.. and no hope of paying the debt at all. As it seems like my life is a puzzle ring that cannot be solved.

Sanae: I see.. you must really hate your mother for leaving you with such predicament and misery.

Kozue: I used to hate her more for dying and leaving me alone, but now I understand her feeling a bit. When your life is so miserable, you would even want to live. Mom must really had a tough time too. **crying**

Sanae: **Feeling guilty**

Kozue: Oh sorry! If I stay sad like that I wouldn't be able to greet the customer!

• As it turned out, Sanae didn't actually want to murder the Shimomura mother-son at first, and actually was secretly paying Kozue's debt with her own gathered money. However, she discovered that she was having a malignant cancer and wouldn't have much longer time to live, thus resolved to murder the mother-son as her last resort to have Kozue gained their fortune and free her from the debt.
• The Drama version also added some Adaptational Angst for Sanae.

Kozue: You did everything for me..? But I don't really need those money..!

Sanae: Money is everything in this world! And I'm no mother of yours! While you unfairly had to spend your life paying the massive debt, I myself pretended to be another person and living a carefree life without considering about your feeling at all.. **crying** Your mother has been long gone from this world!

• Sanae, not wanting Kozue or anyone to feel sorry for her, pretended to have Jerkass Facade by claiming that she committed the crime for her own profit as she would sure to live in luxury with Kozue's fortune until she started coughing blood. Sugimoto, her employee and Kozue's friend, had to reprimand her for her action.

Sugimoto: You liar! What are you claiming about living in luxury!? Because your time is..!

Flashback to Sanae revealing Sugimoto about her illness and her being Shipper on Deck for him and Kozue.

Sugimoto: Mugi-mama, you did everything because you wanted to free Kozue from all the debt, didn't you?

Kozue: Mugi-mama.. mom!! **holding her hands, like Sanae once did the same to her many years ago**

Sanae: I-I.. I'm no mother of yours! I'm just a worthless and wicked woman. Your mother died long time ago, in that dark Sea of Trees..

Kozue: **Cries as she holds on to Sanae**

37 Years old series

• Hajime himself, having gone through many of the case with either the murderers or the victims being close to him, slowly suffered a breakdown to the point of not wanting to continue being a detective post 20 years time skip, and on the top of that, he still didn't get together with Miyuki in after all these years.

• In the first case of the series, the two victims Sakurazawa and Suzuki themselves did nothing wrong and was murdered by a psychopathic and greedy serial murderer, who planned to seduce a wealthy bachelor who owned a chain of gas stations. More so for Suzuki since he was previously one of the killer's victims who once escaped her attack before, only to be killed by the killer since he recognized after she murdered Sakurazawa.  

• In Florist Beauty Case, it is much easier to feel sorry toward the Jerkass Woobie Kaoruko than her innocent younger twin sister Sakurako, since it overall it was the latter's action that was the major cause of the tragedy.
  • To explain the whole situation: Sakurako was always the more talented sister whom their father had chosen to be the Akaike school's successor as well as gained his praise and approval. Kaoruko was aware of this but chose to keep the feeling to herself and continue to support the school despite being neglected herself. When their father passed always, their evil uncle usurped the master position, squandered the fortune, caused debt and drove away many of the students with his violent personality. What did Sakurako do? Cut a tie with the school and became an independent flower artist! While she did it in order to support the family so that the money wouldn't be wasted by the uncle, without her the school's fame and stability went down the drain (since she was independent and thus any of her achievement wouldn't be recognized as related to Akaike school). More over, she didn't tell anyone of her intention except her boyfriend who didn't have a good relationship with her sister at all. This culminated in Kaoruko becoming deeply stressed of having to uphold the school's stability and competition, thus decided to be a Good Girl Bad Girl and had a relationship with (unknown to her) a bad man. When the school's finance reached the deep end, she decided to get married to a heir of the rich company (whom she didn't love) to save the school, and the man send a revenge porn to humiliated her. Needless to say, Kaoruko crossed Despair Event Horizon and murdered her sister and put the blame on her, resulting in Sakurako's vengeful boyfriend killing her in a struggle and eventually murdered the evil uncle before being arrested at the end. Even Kindaichi himself, though not agreeing with her (and everyone involved)'s Well-Intentioned Extremist nature, had to feel sorry for her (and was reminded of the similar case of the Kitami sisters from Red Beard Santa Claus case).
  • Their mother Tsuruha, is The Woobie of the episode, since she had lost both of her daughters in the incident as a result of her and her deceased husband never understanding the girls' feeling thoroughly. Fortunately enough for her, Ichioji, the last remaining disciple (who is implied to hold some feeling for her), chose to remain by her side and helped her restore the Akaike school as per the girls' intention of protecting it.