Spoilers: The murderer, the other suspects’ circumstances and the final confrontation are explained below.
Sonoko and Conan's Spooky Story Night, Episode 1263 (Japanese episode 1203), is an anime-original story. Hunter Masashi Inukai is the masked man who kills and buries a woman, then attacks Conan and Sonoko. Gonbei also wears a hannya mask, but for a different reason. A hand injury and concealed handedness distinguish the killer from the other masked figure.
A ghost story turns into a witnessed crime
Conan, Ran and Sonoko are staying at a mountain lodge. Sonoko tells a frightening story about a hannya appearing in the nearby forest. At first it is part of the fun of their overnight gathering, giving the darkness outside a little extra menace.
Leaving Ran behind, Conan and Sonoko go to gather wild mountain vegetables. In the forest they see a person in a hannya mask burying a woman’s body. The resemblance to the story is frightening, but the act in front of them is a human attempt to conceal a killing.
The masked figure notices them and attacks with the shovel used for the burial. During the chase, the shovel strikes a tree and the attacker injures a hand. Conan also observes the use of the left hand. Both details will matter after the face is no longer behind a mask.
The refuge brings three suspicious people together
Conan and Sonoko encounter Emma Tono and take refuge at Gonbei’s mountain hut. Inukai, a 28-year-old hunter, also appears. The hut offers shelter while placing them among people whose appearance and behavior each invite a different suspicion.
Emma has a loose ring, a hiking knife, light clothing and marks on her neck. Gonbei has a hannya mask and a bloodstained axe. Inukai attracts less immediate attention, but he keeps his gloves on and something about the way he uses his hands does not fit.
The dead woman’s appearance offers a separate line of inquiry. There is a mark where a wedding ring has been removed, and she is wearing makeup and clothes unsuitable for hiking. A stab wound to the front of her chest is consistent with meeting someone she could face at close range.
Sonoko protects Conan, and Conan gets them out
During the danger on the slope, Sonoko shields Conan as they fall, injuring her leg. Her habitual treatment of him as a child becomes something more consequential here: she acts to protect him when there is no time for their usual teasing.
Conan refuses to leave her behind. Using his Elasticity Suspenders, he gets them both off the slope. The escape depends on Sonoko’s intervention and then Conan’s resourcefulness, giving each a role in keeping the other safe.
A mask and a knife do not answer the same question
Gonbei really has appeared as the hannya, using the frightening image to drive away people who damage the mountain. That explains a masked presence without making him the person seen burying the victim. There are two wearers behind the apparent single monster.
Emma’s troubling details also belong to another story. She had come to the mountain intending to take her own life. Her ring, clothing, knife and neck marks cannot simply be grouped into an accusation of murder once that separate distress comes into view.
Whether Emma’s knife or Gonbei’s axe killed the woman is not established. The burial shovel was used against Conan and Sonoko, but it too must be kept distinct from the fatal stabbing. Identifying a suspicious object is only useful when it can be connected to the relevant act.
The wound beneath Inukai’s glove
Inukai is naturally left-handed, matching the person Conan observed during the burial and attack. His refusal to remove his gloves gains a further explanation when the wound on his hand is exposed. It matches the injury made when the shovel hit the tree.
Left-handedness alone would not identify one culprit. Here it converges with an injury witnessed during the pursuit and an effort to hide that injury. The small, persistent inconsistency in Inukai’s appearance becomes more useful than the dramatic objects associated with the other suspects.
Inukai had been having an affair with the unnamed victim. That relationship explains the personal meeting suggested by her appearance, but the immediate reason he decided to kill her remains unclear.
The confrontation ends with three people acting together
After being exposed, Inukai aims his hunting gun at Gonbei. Emma intervenes to protect Gonbei and is wounded in the arm. Her action places her in the confrontation as someone protecting another person, extending her role beyond the earlier suspicion surrounding her.
Inukai then turns the gun toward Ran when she arrives. Conan and Sonoko leap at him together, and Ran finishes the confrontation with a kick that subdues him. The episode ends the immediate armed threat through their combined action.
Ran comments on how much Conan and Sonoko resemble a sister and brother. They deny it in unison, a comic response that makes the comparison even more fitting. The following day, the three continue their stay at the lodge.
Why the small clue outlasts the frightening image
The case repeatedly changes what a suspicious detail means. Gonbei’s mask is real but serves another purpose; Emma’s belongings reflect her personal crisis; Inukai’s gloves conceal a trace of the witnessed attack. The solution depends on keeping those explanations separate.
Its emotional center is the cooperation between Conan and Sonoko. She protects him during the fall, he helps her escape, and they move together when Ran is threatened. The return to teasing at the lodge feels reassuring because the episode has shown what lies behind that familiar banter.
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