Conan Angou, 9-square

Volume 97 of Meitantei Shonan Conan (in the U.S., Case Closed) came out mid-December. Because #95 had a pseudo-cipher, I bought #97 to see what the latest storyline contained. And yes, there is an "angou" (cipher/code) this time, too. Conan is a little better than Red Rat in Hollywood, in that the author goes into the effort of explaining the tricks used in the mysteries, and the process of decoding the clues left by the villain. This time, there are four sheets of paper ruled in a 5x5 grid, with an inner 3x3 grid that has a thicker border. At first, this could be seen as some kind of route tramp, or turning grille. Spoilers, in case anyone wants to try solving these puzzles on their own.

----- Spoilers -----

While we're not told about it in the story leading up to the big reveal, the suspects and victims had all been on the same baseball team in high school. The pitcher had been at super-star level and was poised to be scouted by the universities on graduation. In the final game against a specific school's team, three of the players deliberately threw the game in an apparent bid to be accepted into the university owned by the rival high school. The pitcher's career future was thrown into tatters, and he eventually committed suicide a few ears later in an old church in the mountains of everyone's hometown. A fifth member, who had been injured in a previous game had watched his "friends" playing on TV from a hospital room, and he blames the three for the pitcher's death. He invites the three, plus the pitcher's former girlfriend out to the church in the middle of a snowstorm. He triggers an avalanche on the road up to the church so the police can't arrive until the following day. He also invites the "sleeping detective" and 3 guests to bring the total count of people in the church to 9, and then uses magic tricks to lure 2 of the former classmates into traps to kill them.



The gimmick then is that the heavier 3x3 border is supposed to be a baseball diamond outline, and we're to read the letters in the squares identified by the player positions, in the order of the numbers on the players' back.

Card 1: "Saa, purei booru da." (Ok, let's play ball.)
Card 2: Toire de wannauto." (One-out, in the toilet.)
Card 3: Furoba de tsu-auto." (Two-out in the baths.)
Card 4: "Pa-fekuto ga-mu." (Perfect game.)