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FILE966 スキュタレー暗号

絡繰箱の件の翌日、コナンは探偵団の面々に
キッドが阿笠に化けていた(本物はトイレの個室で簀巻き)話をしていると
担任の小林が別のメガネ教師を連れてくる
小林より10歳年上の新副担任・若狭留美(わかさ　るみ)は
お辞儀で教壇におでこをぶつける頼りなさ
コナン以降、このクラスに転入生が多いから増員したのでは、と灰原が言う

給食の時間、留美がコナンたちに手伝いを頼む
次の時間の体育で、校庭にライン引きをしようとしたが石灰を切らし
倉庫にも予備がないので、お化けの出そうな古い倉庫を探すことになる
そこは見るからにボロボロで、新一が小学生だったころから鍵もついてない
風水を理由に壊せない、と当時の校長が卒業式で言っていたが
その辺をコナンが話すたびごとにボロが出る
ともかく中に入ろうぜ、とコナンはごまかし気味に取っ手に手をかけると
　それに触っちゃいけないよ…
とどこからともなく聞こえてくる
倉庫を開けないわけにはいかないので、中に入ると明かりがつかない
探偵団が亜笠にもらったライトで照らしながら石灰を探していると
破れた書きかけの時間割、そして地下へ通じる扉を見つける
最近誰かが開けたのか、取っ手のサビがはがれてる
コナンが扉を持ち上げると…階段の下に白骨死体
留美に携帯で通報させ、その間にコナンは死体を観察する
おそらく死後5～10年経過、右手にハチマキらしきものがあり
まともには読めない文字がびっしり書かれてる
新一が小学生だったころ、蘭がこの｢魔法のヒモ｣を見つけていた
書かれていたのはたぶん中国語
取っ手に結ばれていたので、コナンがほどいて先生に見せようとすると
謎のおっさんに｢それに触っちゃいけないよ？
　この倉庫に恐ろしい魔物を封じ込めた…　魔封じのヒモなんだから…｣
と脅かされた

駆けつけた白鳥の話では、遺体はおよそ10年前のもので
身元を表すものもなく、物盗りか何かが足を滑らせて転落死したと思われる
警察は事件性なしとして遺体を回収して帰っていく
すると校長が、10年前にも警察が来たことがあるという
4人組が近所の資産家を強盗殺人、2億円相当の金塊を奪って逃げたらしく
帝丹小の敷地にも怪しい人物の出入りを見たという情報があり調べに来た
校長も4人組の行方は知らないが、おびえて暮らしてるか野垂れ死んでいるか

ヒモの文字はスキュタレー暗号だろうとコナンが言う
ヒモを棒に巻きつけてから一意の文章を書き
巻いたヒモをほどくと、意味不明の文字の羅列が出来上がる
遺体が持っていたヒモそのものは警察に渡してしまったが
コナンはその前に携帯に撮っていたので、灰原に頼んで印刷してもらっている
灰原が帰ってくるのを待って、探偵団の前で巻いて見せると……読めない
棒の太さが違うのか、それとも……
■スキュタレー暗号、失敗か!?…ってこの先生、なんか怪しいッ――!?

File 966: Scytale Cypher

The day after after the trick box case Conan tells the DBs that Kid disguised as Agasa (and wrapped the real one in bamboo inside of a toilet stall).

Then homeroom teacher Kobayashi brings along a teacher with glasses: the new deputy homeroom teacher, 10 years older than Kobayashi: Wakasa Rumi.

When she bows she hits the forehead with the teacher's desk and doesn't seem too reliable.

Haibara suggests to Conan than since there have been several new transfer students the school might've decided to increase the staff.

At lunch time Rumi asks Conan & co. to lend her a hand: she wanted to draw the lines for the PE class in the school yard but turns out there are no more chalks and there are no spares so she wants them to look for chalks in an old warehouse that seems like the type of place where a ghost would appear.

A mere glance tells you it's falling apart and it's never been locked ever since Shinichi was an elementary student: back then the headmaster said at the graduation ceremony that they wouldn't tore it apart: he used Feng Shui as an argument to not to do so.

The warehouse seems to wear down even as Conan explains this to the others. He tries to motivate the others to go in but when he graps the handle a voice calls out and tells him not to touch that: Conan and the others ignore that since they were ordered to go in yet turns out it's dark on the inside.

The DBs use the flashlights Agasa gave them to search for the chalks: they find a worn down timetable and a door leading to the basement: someone's opened it recently because some rust is missing from the doorknob. When the DBs lift the door they find a corpse become skeleton below the stairs.

They have Rumi report this to the police through her cellphone and in the meanwhile they inspect the corpse: Conan estimes it's been between 5 and 10 years this person died and holds something that looks like a headband on the right hand: it's got cocked writing that makes it hard to figure out anything from it.

Conan recalls than when he and Ran were elementary students Ran found this "magical pimp" and it's probable that the text written on it was on Chinese.

The headband was linked to the doorknob so when Conan tries to untie to show it to Rumi a mysterious old man shows up and warns them:

"You musn't touch that, you know? Because it's the magical pimp that... keeps a frightening monster sealed into this storeroom..."

Shiratori and the police come to the warehouse: it's estimated the corpse is from over 10 years ago: it doesn't have anything that helps ID it, and it's estimated that it surely was trying to take anything when they slipped and fell down thus diying. The police decide this isn't a case so they retrieve the corpse and leave: the headmaster then admits the police came to the school 10 years ago.

A group of 4 robbers broke into a wealthy person's home and robbed there as well as killing the owner: they stole gold bars estimated to be worth 200 million yen (aprox 20 million USD) and ran away. Someone back then reported seeing mysterious figures coming in and out of Teitan Elementary's precint so the police came to investigate that.

The headmaster says that no-one knows what became of the 4 robbers: they might be living somewhere cowering in fear or maybe they are about to die.

Conan then says that the pimp's writing might be a Scytale Cypher: you write a unique text in a string tied to a stick and when you undo the string you get a row of unknown letters: the police have retrieved it but Conan took a photo of it with the phone and asked Haibara to have it be printed.

They wait for Haibara to return and, when she does, they find out that when they try to wrap the string around the stick they get something undecipherable instead of what they expected: maybe the stick's length needs to be longer or maybe there's something to it...

Side-note: "They fail at deciphering the Scytale Encryption!? And, say... Isn't this teacher (Rumi) suspicious!?"

Case is looking mighty fine but Shiratori again, huh... How very interesting to finally start using him again.

But he's only come to retrieve the skeleton and we don't if he'll be coming back. Maybe when Conan figures out the code he'll ask for his help.

The DBs and Rumi were looking for chalks when they found the skeleton. And then Conan wants to try to solve the code the skeleton had on him/her.

It's possible that this code might be a hint to the whereabouts of the gold bars.

oh sorry, I didn't realize it..
I prefer wait for the pict then, I can't if just read the text spoiler actually..
But, thanks for the text spoiler, it really spoiled me ^^d

RUM-i

We talked about this in the spoiler c-box but that's because you're seeing it from an western perspective, someone who uses Alphabet.

For the Japanese these names don't look alike in the least:

ラム (Rum)

若狭留美 (Wakasa Rumi)

One thing is a foreign concept/object hence why it's spelled in Katakana.

The other thing is a name written in Kanji.

Even if you were to turn "Rum" into hiragana they don't look alike either:

らむ (Rum)

るみ (Rumi)

You're not the only one who's surprisingly jumped to this idea but it's an idea only non-Japanese people would think of: I'm not saying it's not a bad idea but from Japanese PoV it makes no sense.

I don’t think that this connection is as apparent to the characters as to us readers. While Rumi obviously contains Rum, it’s not as clear in Japanese since the name Rumi would be transcribed as るみ (rumi), but Rum is written as ラム (ramu) to represent the English pronunciation. Spimer already clarified this while I was drafting this post. I should type faster.

When we discussed the name in the spoiler box a few hours ago, there was the idea that this link might become evident at the end of this case, which I hope won’t happen if this teacher is supposed to be yet another red herring for Rum, specially since—as was also pointed out then—the name Wakasa Rumi contains asaka as well, with W and i remaining.

Since I doubt that this teacher is involved with Rum, I’d prefer Haibara to give us a genuine hint such as another characteristic of Rum or whatever she might have overheard about them to yet another red herring.

I know that for a japanese Rum , asaca has nothing to do with wakasa rumi ..but gosho has based his deduction on roman alphabets before .like in ch."267" the case of sato's father where the hint left by him was solved when they made a link with the english alphabets ..for us who read english it's nothing but it can be more challenging for the japanese readers to notice ..
I don't say that rumi is rum but may have something to do in the Rum arc

There is no vision problem: that's just a symptom that she's clumsy.

There's the possibility yet she feels too clumsy in the first place. Wanting to search the worn down warehouse for chalk IS suspicious, though. Why not go buy it at a store?