Chekhov MacGuffin

Discuss unresolved parts of past and current plots here, although please consider typing in-depth discussion in the relevant topical thread if possible, or creating a separate thread if necessary. For your convenience here is a list of many of the unresolved plots. Please suggest any additions or links to threads where a plot is being discussed.(I did not come up with all of these. Please see original post here.) Items and things • What is in the P.S. of Akemi's last text message to Akai? • What (besides drug data) is on the bloody disk that Haibara lied about losing at the Haido City Hotel? • What was the program about that Itakura couldn't complete for the sake of humanity? • What is the goal of the APTX 4869 project? • What kind of drug is Silver Bullet? Is Silver Bullet a different/early name for the project called APTX 4869? • What kind of drug did the Black Organization really want Shiho to make and how is it different than what she and her parents' actually made? • Night Baron Virus - the Org used it once and it was in another case. What does it signify and is their more plot relevance to it? • What happened to the handkerchief that Vermouth as Sharon gave Ran in the New York case? • What else is on the four tapes left for Haibara by her parents? Why were certain portions blank? • Why were the BO at the mermaid island and are any of the names in the guestbook besides Sherry's, Gin's alias, and Vodka's alias important? (Some discussion is in the main boss thread) Plot people • Vermouth's aging issue, her connection to the Miyanos, and APTX4869 • What is the reason for the antipathy between Sherry and Vermouth? Why does Vermouth hate the Miyanos? • Why is Vermouth the boss's favorite when she is somewhat treacherous? • What secret does Amuro know about the boss and Vermouth's relationship that he is using to blackmail her? (File 898) • "Silver bullets": What is Vermouth plotting by collecting people with the capability to destroy the Organization? • What is Vermouth's precise reason for hiding Shinichi and Shiho's deaging from the rest of the Organization? Is it something more than Shinichi is one of Vermouth's two angels, along with Ran? • Where was Vermouth telephoning Itakura from that had a cat or something that sounds like one? • Why did Vermouth as Sharon and Itakura have a bad relationship? (Volume 78.) • Jodie’s father - how did he find out about Vermouth and what did he find that forced Vermouth to take direct action, kill him, and burn his house down with all the evidence inside? • The husband of Vermouth as Sharon Vineyard - who is he? • Elena and Atsushi Miyano: their lives, their supposed death by accident that they seemed to know about in advance, their connection with Agasa • What secret thing did Miyano Atsushi want to tell Dejima Souhei, but was unable to, when he came to visit with his wife and Akemi 20 years ago? • Shiho and Akemi: why their different fates within the org? One became a high ranked member, the other lived a more normal life. • Why does the boss fear Akai is a silver bullet? • Gin and Akai: how did the personal rivalry start when they probably hadn't met each other much if at all before Akai was ejected from the Org? • If Jodie Starling went into the witness protection program, does that mean Jodie Starling is not her real name? If so what is it? • Amuro's past with Date • Amuro's past in the Organization and childhood connection to Elena Miyano • Who was the mysterious man who staked out Akai's meeting with Gin that Camel ruined? • What is the connection between Gin and Sherry? • What was Conan going to ask Ai after the showdown with Gin? "Hey… Could it be that when you were in the BO…". (Volume 24, File 242) • Shiho's foreshadowed meeting with Akai • Okiya's/Akai's promise with a certain woman. (Probably Akemi) People • Agasa's mysterious friends/connections - to the Miyanos and to unknown parties. • Magic Kaito's Organization related to the Black Organization? How much of Magic Kaito's Pandora story will carry over to DC? • Toichi, Vermouth, and Yukiko - how did that master-apprenticeship start? • Kogoro's absent past and relatives. What was he doing (besides romancing Eri), why did he decide to join the police in the first place when he seemed like a delinquent at school, why did he leave the force, who and where are Kogoro's family, and why do they never appear? • Calvados: was he important for anything other than making Chianti and Korn angry at Vermouth? • James Black: Does he have more relevance or a past? • Shizuka and Heizo Hattori: what are they doing, how are they connected to the story and why don't they come back? • What is the relationship to the plot, if any, of minor recurring characters such as Okino Yoko, Sanada Kazumi, Azusa Enemoto, Akagi Hide, Osamu Kenzaki, etc...? • How did Akai Shuuichi's father die? General issues (please see relevant threads) • Boss's identity • Purpose of the Org and their research: Biochem, computer agenda? • What's the Org's connection with America? Why did the FBI and CIA get involved in the first place? • List of plot points about the Black Organization Specific "current" issues • Ran wondering about when Shinichi touched and got fingerprints on Heiji's omamori and the effect on the plot. (Volume 66: Files 8-10 (693-695)) • Sera Masumi's identity and reason for coming to Japan (Partially resolved Masumi is Akai's sister) • Sera's past connection to Shinichi. (general thread) • Why does Sera think she is a bad kid while watching Ran treat Conan's injury? • What is the incident involving waves that Ran remembers Sera from? • The identity of Masumi's "Wizard" (general thread) • The identity of the Akai family middle brother • Why is Mary, Masumi and Shuuichi's mother, a child and how did that circumstance come about? Why is she in Japan now? • Who is Rum? • Why did Kir send a message about Rum only now? • What is Rum's current goal? • Why are there many conflicting accounts about Rum's appearance, but everyone agrees about the fake eye? • Who the 2 mothers that Aoyama has said are sisters in an interview? • Who keeps reposting the information about Haneda Kohji's death? • How did Haneda Kohji find out information about Rum, and what were the circumstances that led up to his death? • What is the drug that Ai said the BO wanted her to make that wasn't her parents' APTX 4869 project? • Who is Wakasa Rumi and what are her motives? • What is Hyoue Kuroda's past with the Japanese police and injury, and from whom did he learn that Conan is the brains behind Sleeping Kogoro? • Who is Momiji Ooka and why does she think Heiji is her future husband? Resolved • What was Elena about to say on the tape intended to be heard on Shiho's 18th Birthday? (Resolved 821 see wiki for APTX or Elena Miyano) • Yukiko and Yusaku Kudo: what are they doing, how are they connected to the story and why don't they come back? (somewhat resolved with London arc and more resolved for Yukiko in the Bell tree express arc) • Okiya's identity (Resolved as Akai Shuuichi) • Scar Akai's identity (resolved in 822 as Vermouth (train) and Bourbon (Teito bank, Beika dept store, Mouri Detective agency) • Will Kaitou Kid ever get involved in the plot? (Yes, in the train case although he doesn't know about the BO apparently. According to a postcard, Kaitou Kid won;t be involved in the final showdown.) • Is the violent robbery syndicate whose headquarters and warehouse are in Tottori related to the Black Organization? (Volume 44: Files 4-6 (450-452)) (sort of resolved because an interview with Gosho indicated that the BO and Tottori don't have a connection) • Haibara's strange reaction to Kurayoshi city (倉吉市), Tottori or perhaps Tottori in general (sort of resolved because an interview with Gosho indicated that the BO and Tottori don't have a connection) • Who were the shadow people who Akai asked to follow Yukiko and the Detective boys? (Gosho said in an interview we can ignore them) • Why does Bourbon hate Akai? (Akai was related to secret police agent Scotch's death) • Bourbon's promise with Vermouth (File 800 or so) - to not touch Ran or Conan no matter what happens. • How or why did the Secret Police agent known as Scotch die, and how was Akai Shuuichi related to his death? - Suicide, which Bourbon thought was murder. • The identity of the small child from the hotel - Mary is Masumi and Shuuichi's mother

List of clues that Hakuba was really Kaitou Kid in Movie 10.

I remember she came really close though when Conan pulled the anaesthetizing needle out of the rear region of her pants in the Tequila case. She missed and hit Kogoro's face. I think she's also hurt Conan unintentionally when she was distracted by thinking about someone else; I vaguely remember one scene where she squeezed his hand really tightly because she was angry at Shinichi.

Gosho regularly gives out freebee clues that help solve the arc that Conan doesn't know. One of the strongest clues happened in the Vermouth arc where we had Jodie's pictures of Vermouth's pictures and the pictures in Vermouth's office. We saw Vermouth was Chris Vineyard and thus an actress at the end of the Haido City Hotel case, but Conan didn't get to figure that out until much later. Also Akai and James were in league with one another which we found out in the Vermouth arc, but Conan didn't find out until the start of the Kir arc until they told him the answer. Another reader only hint was Kir's hesitation right before she directs Domon to the bench where he will be assassinated, showing that she has second thoughts about what she is doing. There are also lots of scenes of the Black Org which tell us what they are doing, but Conan doesn't know (Gin looking for someone in Sherry's intro case, Vermouth finding Kir was at a hospital, etc.) And Bourbon could be disguising as well, with Vermouth's help. Also your second paragraph makes the rest of the point I was going to make. Read here. Yes, Conan probably has a pretty good idea of how it went down at Raiha pass, even though we wasn't there because he would have been around for the planning. Remember Kir's quote to Gin. "Tricks? What kind of tricks could I use? ...(skip monologue here)... There's no means of utilizing any sort of trick. That is, unless you're implying he or I had superhuman brainpower that allowed us to calculate that far ahead... maybe then we could have tricked you. Yes, like that of Sherlock Holmes." It strongly implies that Kir was referencing Conan in that conversation. It was a hint to the reader to look for a trick that Conan could be involved in much like (highlight for manga spoilers)James Black mentioning he cultivated such eyes which was a somewhat blunt hint to the readers to look at eyes, specifically Sera's. And then in the most recent case, eye was scratched on the wall. (end spoilers) Conan doesn't like people dead, even bad guys. He would have interfered no matter who was walking out the door. Also something strange happened at the time which made Conan doubt his hypothesis that scar Akai was Bourbon - Jodie got a message from someone on the back of a coaster telling her it was dangerous here. You can tell from Conan's expression he is confused at hearing about that. (He gets the "....."s.) When Okiya appears, Conan realized that Okiya could have left it as well and also Okiya says talks about knowing someone which confirms for Conan someone is in disguise as Akai. Scar Akai sent the mail. Ran mailed back a random man who confirmed scar Akai had his phone. Also we know it wasn't Okiya because Okiya would have included info about the snowy mountains case because we know he looked it up earlier. Scar Akai may not have had access to the internet on his borrowed phone, so he didn't include the details.Also, if scar Akai went through the trouble of handing the man back the phone with a hanky to avoid fingerprints, it's only logical he would have also wiped the buttons down with the hanky to remove his fingerprints before handing it back. Also your trick wouldn't work. He still has to handle the borrowed phone in order to send the message to Kogoro's phone from it. He would have to use the buttons on the borrowed phone anyway in order to type in Kogoro's mail address. It also means he leaves his real phone's address on the borrowed phone when he sent the original message. He could have deleted it, but the phone company would still have a record of it and some phones can undelete messages, or worse, forward text messages to email where they can't be deleted by Bourbon. The best strategy was the one Scar Akai used, steal someone's phone, use it to send the message, meaning he doesn't have to use his own phone or phone number and then wipe it down. The only "flaw" I see in the plan was giving the man his phone back at all. Scar Akai could have just thrown it out so the man didn't see who used it; however, Gosho has got to give the reader some clues to work with here. If the BO was perfect, there would be no mystery. Maybe his borrowed phone doesn't have internet which is why he didn't use it. Even if his real phone did have internet, maybe he didn't want to even bring it out because he didn't want anything on camera. He knew that he was on video recording even. But in all of scar Akai's appearances, he wasn't seen using a phone. It would be really hard to remember every detail in order to send it to someone else unless you are constantly texting information to keep track of it. Think of the detective boys who were sending info to Heiji in the warehouse case. They were constantly taking pictures and typing info in order to make sure he got the necessary clues.

But he hasn't, many cases later, and he's even protected her a few times in the middle. Assuming Okiya is not stupid, he could tell Haibara was Sherry on their first meeting because she is very distinctive looking. If Okiya knows who Conan is and knows who Ai is, why hasn't he made any moves? He's had lots of chances. He could tell when Agasa and Conan are away because he has been watching and listening.

I don't think plastic surgery could cover it. Even assuming extreme training (it would have to be, even for a young person), how could someone with a fifty year old woman's body suddenly vault up over a handrail from a dead hanging position while shot in the side? - which is what happened in the NYC arc. A 20 or 30 year old's body I could understand, but 50? Now if Vermouth was age-locked into a 20 to 30 year old's body which means she keeps her youthful strength...

I think Conan would know because of Akai's story --> he got into the Org by using Akemi to meet Sherry. Since he knows Sherry, and knows Vermouth was after Sherry, but Vermouth went after Ai instead, I'm sure he can put one and one together and figure out Haibara is Sherry, although he may not know how exactly that happened. I don't know if Conan knows that Akai knows he is Shinichi. (know x3) I bet Conan is keeping in mind that Akai is smart and could probably figure it out if given enough clues. The problem is all the clues Okiya received mostly occurred where Conan didn't hear about them, like Okiya's house search, and "Kinichi".

Manga spoilers 771+

She could be talking about how hard it is to delete a person in real life, which is kind of what happened to Akai.

That makes sense, and I noticed the gradation in the closeup when Kazuha looks at them. There is still the unresolved issue of how the long-haired-person managed to put the tiles in right side up in the dark, which I alluded to in my previous post.Unless of course, took them off and the tiles were double layered!

I'm inclined to agree with Parkur. I don't want people to spam just to increase post count for titles. Dealing with one user who did this kind of thing was bad enough. I don't want to encourage it.

Raven Chaser outsold movie 6, and may have still beat it even accounting for inflation rate which in Japan has been very low if not nearly flat. Phantom had a famous writer, likely got good reviews for being "deep" because of the social commentary, and most people don't care about it being the equivalent of a movie fanfic - it's detective enough for them and has the DC characters in it; basically most people don't care that all of a sudden someone comes along with super technology that doesn't fit into the established manga plot. Heck, a good chunk of the people who watched it probably never read/watched much of the manga or the anime.

I assume you mean "Why would Sera delete Haibara's picture if she didn't know about the Org...?" Sera may have deleted the picture because she didn't find out anything interesting about Ai. Ai was an investigation target, but she didn't pan out for Sera because Ai and the professor weren't harboring Akai. In any case, Sera hasn't otherwise given any indications that she knows anything more than basic appearances about Ai, unlike Conan where she suspects him of being the brains behind Kogoro.

The letter is likely not from Kouhei's murderer. I am guessing it is from someone who would want to drag the murderer out. "Distorted existence thoughtlessly conjured up by humans such as yourself. To see me directly is a dream that cannot be realized." put through my melodramatic metaphoric prose to plain English translator comes out as "The police detectives' original explanation is wrong. I want it fixed." This person may have been the one to poison Ikurou in revenge or was Ikurou himself who discovered the trick and was killed by Kouhei's murderer. Ikurou is such an ass though I doubt he would want anyone to discover the truth of the father’s murder, especially because it gives him the chance to become company president. Well maybe it would mean another competitor gets blamed, giving him greater chances to become pres? The post mark on the letter was from 10 days after the incident, so whoever sent it to Heiji figured out the crime quickly. The letter sender was most likely the one to appear in front of Kazuha in the bathroom judging by the similar melodramatic writing style. They used a wig to cover up their face and triggered the black out, perhaps by remote. They then used the same disappearing writing on the tile trick as the original murderer used. The long haired person then escaped. Unfortunately it isn’t clear how they left, either by walking past Kazuha and friends who had moved away from the bathroom entrance or by using a secret exit. Regarding the tile trick a few things can be deduced: • “Eerie rustling sounds” will be made in the course of the trick • The tile had to be replaced, switched or moved somehow because no luminol reaction was found and luminol reactions can’t be easily erased without leaving traces that something was used to erase it (bleach for instance). • When the tile is replaced/moved/switched in the dark, somehow it is possible to align them all properly so the colors are in proper position. There must be an easy way to remove and set the tiles in the right configuration or the tiles change color somehow to match (if they did change color someone would have mentioned that I think.). • The trick takes about 5 minutes, that’s how long the light was out for Kazuha. • The trick only replaced specific tiles rather than all of them. – Only the letters for “eye” disappeared and not the other scratched tiles. • The trick may involve replacing tiles as the adhesive had not dried. There should have also have been spare tiles convenient around because the guy was in the middle of retiling the bathroom. Kazuha’s long haired person had plenty of time to prepare ahead of time. Why did the culprit have to replace the tiles instead of just erasing the dying message by rubbing it off? Perhaps the dying message wasn’t something that wiping off could erase, like scratches along with blood writing. Or maybe the original culprit tiled over the dying message which was on the bare floor? Maybe Kazuha’s person put tiles on top of tiles which is sort of similar to the original trick and she didn’t notice because of having only a short time to look at it? Another possibility was the presence of a luminol reaction would be enough to make the dying message clear. In that case it would be less likely to be writing and more likely to be a shape or something not easily altered. It’s suspicious that the Karuizawa house was scheduled to be rebuilt right after someone died in the family. The only people with enough power in the house to do so would be the wife and son, with the wife taking precedence. The victim was a do-it-yourself person so he would be less likely to call in other people to do work for him. Perhaps this was arranged after the husband’s death by someone who needed to cover something up. The Karuizawa house was neatly maintained and the electricity was working as well, but it has only been a month since the original guy was murdered, so I doubt it would deteriorate. It may imply someone was in there taking care of it though. I wonder if Sera will follow Heiji and Conan. The place they are visiting is in Tokyo after all. Maybe we will get Sato on the case this time. Megure and Takagi are practically assured arrivals. Shiratori woulnd't be bad either. I wonder if Kansuke was on the case in Karuizawa because that's in Nagano (although really close to Gunma). What’s up with Conan’s unsure reaction to Heiji’s excluding of Sera “That's more convenient for our purposes.” Does Conan want Sera to be around so he could keep an eye on her? Did Okiya finally tell him to keep and eye on his sister?

Movie 6. It's too out-of-genre, not-Detective Conan for me to enjoy it. Come on, a sentient AI coded by an angry dispossessed child genius threatens to erase children's brains if they don't beat him in a game? - it's like a fanfiction or something. Early on in my Detective Conan career, I watched it because everyone was talking about how great it was. I temporarily stopped reading DC because I thought it meant the series was going to turn into something like it. Chekhov MacGuffin came very close to never existing because of Movie 6. Luckily I gave DC another chance.

MI9 is/was the resistance aid division as in like helping POW's rebel. I think MI6 would be more appropriate for sending people to other countries to do various activities.That said, I'm not sure Sera knows about the Org.

I moved a bunch of posts related to justwantanaccount's post to the Sera's identity speculation topic because they were unrelated to this case. Please see these posts for further replies. If you want to speculate about Sera's identity beyond the East vs. West case, please go to the Sera's identity speculation thread.

Moonlight Sonata was a manga case that Gosho wrote, and one of the most popular at that.

No one important. I think the boss is a not yet introduced character. It may not be an exciting option, but I think it's the most likely.

I've seen the Chinese, and it's not as creepy as I would have hoped. There are five suspects though, so either this case is going to get serial or Gosho is going to break tradition. It's too early to tell about the cake murder because not enough info is available. We are going to need to know where the poison was found (on his hands or in the cake?) because the guy may have had his hands poisoned before touching the cake. It's possible some progress will be made on the riddle - which incidentally reminds me of something Kaitou Kid would have wrote. Eye and the homophonous letter "I" may be related. Maybe the wordplay won't be so bad this time around. *crosses fingers* The maid reminded me of the disguise Kaito Kid used in the Iron Tanuki case.

Yoko Okino is unlikely to be the boss because she has not made any effort to avoid Kogoro who is thought to be a renowned detective. Yoko Okino also introduced Mizunashi Rena to Mouri Kogoro in order to have Mizunashi's stalker problem solved. Even of the boss was sure of his/her own ability to fool others, the boss would want to avoid interactions between Black Organization operatives and renowned detectives if possible should the detective notice something amiss.If Yoko Okino was the boss, she should be smart, yet she failed to identify who was stalking and harassing her (that's what she originally went to Kogoro's office for) and deal with them. If she had taken appropriate measures she could have avoided bringing police and a detective to her home. (Copied from the not the boss list)

Bourbon wants to find Akai, but his only lead is that he knows who Akai's friends are. He doesn't know if Akai is in contact with them, or even if they know that Akai is alive. Furthermore Bourbon doesn't have anyone else helping him except Vermouth who can make masks but has otherwise been reigned in by the boss following the ghost ship. Can you think of any other plan that would let Bourbon find Akai other than the one he is using already - appearing in front of the FBI to gauge their reactions? He's already been stalking and spying on the FBI in order to pick good locations to appear. If that worked, Bourbon wouldn't have bothered appearing in front of the FBI. It's not an ideal strategy, but in terms of what Bourbon has to work with, it's the only one he can easily accomplish by himself that has a likelihood of working. Vermouth wasn't explaining her suspicions. She was telling Gin that Bourbon was dressed as Akai and don't shoot him please. Gin already knows about Bourbon's personality; he doesn't believe Akai is dead. Vermouth doesn;t have to explain to Gin why Bourbon is doing this. If he acted like Akai, or still had his memories, or he would speak in front of people who knew him, or used his left hand instead of his right to fire a gun, and didn't run away from the FBI after appearing, then he would be a lot less suspicious. Your above two quotes are like a contradiction. You are looking for something deeper that isn't there. Gosho's cases work out that way; you uncovered the tricks and that's it. Gosho is not one of those authors who piles up layers upon layers of obfuscation to misdirect the reader. Gosho does a trick, you see through it, and the solution is straightforward from there. All the regular cases, the Vermouth arc, and Kir arc were the same way. Sometimes the trick is difficult, but once you have it solved, you've done the main job, and the only thing left is loose ends like motives.

Spoilers about the upcoming chapter were originally posted on DCTP by Fujiwara. They have been copied here for your convenience. Prior poll votes: How creepy do you think this case is? Creepy (3 votes [30.00%]) Somewhat creepy (3 votes [30.00%]) Tame (1 votes [10.00%]) I'm totally immune (3 votes [30.00%]) Who was the culprit behind Wakamatsu Kouhei's death? Wakamatsu Ikurou (25): Kouhei's son (5 votes [45.45%]) Wakamatsu Serika (43) : Kouhei's wife (1 votes [9.09%]) Shiina Masashige (56): Design company senior managing director (0 votes [0.00%]) Fujinami Sumio (30): Design company chief designer and football head (1 votes [9.09%]) Satake Yoshimi (32): Victim's Secretary (2 votes [18.18%]) Yonehara Sakurako (23): Housekeeper (0 votes [0.00%]) Someone else (0 votes [0.00%]) It was an accident (0 votes [0.00%]) It was really a suicide (0 votes [0.00%]) I am not ready to vote yet (2 votes [18.18%]) More than one person (0 votes [0.00%])

You have this wrong. The manga is overtly pushing Okiya to be the most suspicious one. If you check the manga sidebars, the manga is busy assuming that Scar Akai is the real Akai and that Okiya wants to do something bad to him. I quote:700b: “The bomb case begins and Akai and Subaru are also involved! The tension rises in the next issue.” 701b: “Gin has started to work it out!! Will the assassin's bullet reach Akai again...!?” 702b: “Subaru has discovered Akai and wears an unbecoming smile. Could this situation get anymore dangerous?” 703a: “Gin and company are planning to ambush Akai in front of the department store...” 704b: “Is Okiya Subaru also searching for Akai!?” As for Gin's quote, the alternate (and I believe incorrect) interpretation is that he is referring to Subaru and he let "Akai" go because he's Subaru's target, and because "Akai" caught on that Chianti was there, and bystanders were beginning to notice. If you think about it a little and ignore all the smirking, dark expressions, and stuff that are designed to trick you on an emotional level, you can see the logic doesn't make sense, but you have to remember the existence of that layer of misleading stuff. …because he is Bourbon and because he is appearing in front of the FBI in disguise as Akai to gauge their reactions to him. This explains all his actions so far, everything from why he targets one FBI member at a time to why he appears in crowded places. I know I already explained this once before, but I'll elaborate even further this time. Gin and Vodka told us that Bourbon doesn't believe Akai is dead and also believes he is the only person who can kill Akai. We don't know why Bourbon thinks this way and whether his beliefs have any rationality behind them vs. just pure obsessive hatred, but that's the info we have been given and there isn't a good reason for Vodka or Gin to lie about it. If they thought Kir might pass info on that Bourbon might be hunting for Akai, they wouldn't have mentioned it at all. So now Akai seems to be dead, but Bourbon, given his personal beliefs, thinks Gin was duped which naturally means Kir was involved. The problem is finding Akai now because Bourbon wants to kill him properly. Unfortunately, Akai could be anywhere. More unfortunately, Kir isn't spilling and Gin thinks she did her job properly, and thus she is loyal so excessive interrogation is out of the question until he can come up with reasonable doubts the others will buy off on. He investigates Kir as best he can without upstarting the chain of command and gets ahold of her cellphone which was left in Gin’s car when Kir changed her clothes just before phase 2 of the Domon assassination. He looks at it, but doesn’t find anything especially interesting other than a text message from one Mouri Kogoro with his routing number. Bourbon notes the number anyway in case it has anything to do with finding Akai. So anyway, Bourbon has to find Akai. The problem is Akai is a smart b*****d and could be anywhere. And worse, Akai isn't going to just slink off and do nothing while pretending to be dead because that isn't Akai's character. No, Akai is going to be plotting or something. So how can Bourbon find Akai short of knocking on every door in Japan? The best chance of success is to probe his close friends of course. These friends may have helped him with his faking death. Vermouth may have told Bourbon that they seemed to have genuine mournful reactions, but maybe Akai dropped by later to clear things up with them and arrange for disguises, papers, or something while he stays in hiding. Another problem Bourbon faces is that Gin and Co. really believe Akai is dead, so they aren’t going to help with the plan. Vermouth is sympathetic because only she knows Conan is buddies with the FBI and may have manipulated affairs. (The reason why I am saying Vermouth is involved with Bourbon’s plan is because of the conversation with Gin) So with only Vermouth’s help, how is Bourbon going to figure out where Akai is? The best way to hunt Akai down is to find his contacts. From his contacts, Bourbon could try to get some evidence showing reasonable suspicion that Akai is alive, and then use it to convince the rest of the BO to investigate further and find Akai, or else he could try to find Akai himself via the contacts, by, say, threatening them and hoping Akai comes out of hiding to defend. Any contacts will know Akai is alive, versus everyone else who will think he’s dead. That’s when Bourbon gets a genius plan: disguise as Akai but with some obvious difference, like a big burn and fake amnesia, and show up suddenly in front of potential contacts. If they react like “WTF, you are alive!?” they are off the list. If they react with suspicion or aggression against Akai who suddenly has a large burn and fake amnesia, they are the targets. This disguise-as-Akai plan only requires one person, Bourbon himself, and Vermouth is willing to provide assistance to make a believable disguise. What exactly happens in order to get the boss’s approval is unclear. Maybe Bourbon complained to the boss directly and boss agreed just to get him off his back, or maybe Vermouth came forward with the proposal to placate Bourbon. It doesn’t matter. The boss agrees to tell everyone else the lie that Bourbon is looking for Sherry in case Kir gets wind of it and reports to the FBI. (This causes trouble later when Gin mistakes Bourbon for the real Akai and doesn’t know the real plan until Vermouth pulls up on her bike to tell him about it.) So naturally Bourbon goes to target the person closest to Akai first – Jodie Starling. Of course, this is a risky business. If Jodie is in contact with Akai, she might try to kill Bourbon or sic her friends on him. So Bourbon tails her and picks a location to appear that is both public and highly populated so Jodie can’t try to kill or capture him all of a sudden without getting noticed or stopped by random bystanders. He also times it so he appears when Jodie is separated from her friends. Jodie takes the bait and runs after him, but suddenly stops at an alley. Bourbon doesn’t quite know what to make of the reaction so he approaches her again in Teito bank to make sure that she is reacting like “WTF, you are alive!?” and thus is not Akai’s contact. Then a coincidental robbery happens and Bourbon gets trapped in the bank with Jodie. Bad luck, because Jodie’s reactions tell him that she definitely is not a contact of Akai’s. Worse luck is the robbers have people duct tape his eyes and face, which means his mask is going to get destroyed when the duct tape comes off. Bourbon therefore needs to book it out of the bank before Jodie finds out he isn’t the real Akai and can warn her friends, who may be Akai’s contacts without her knowing, that there is a fake Akai wandering around. Bourbon salvages the rotten situation as best as he is able to by firing a gun at Conan’s attacker and escaping. It provides a distraction where people will run around in confusion (think Conan’s plan at the dept store!) and then the police will come in while everyone is still duct-taped and Bourbon can remove/fix his disguise in the confusion and escape without Jodie finding out. The plan coincidentally also has the side benefit of tricking Jodie some more into thinking he is the real Akai. Bourbon aims for Camel next. Why Camel? Remember this guy? This guy administered Akai’s final loyalty test. While he could be just anyone, maybe he was Bourbon in disguise (got to admit the clothes look alike!) who hated Akai even back then and was hoping to catch Akai out at the very end. Anyway, Bourbon does the same thing he did to Jodie with Camel; he follows Camel to a public place with lots of people around generally, and catches Camel all by his lonesome in the bathroom. Camel has the “WTF, you are alive!?” reaction so Bourbon doesn’t bother with a repeat check. While making sure he loses Camel and any other FBI by wandering around, Bourbon heads to the sports floor and… gets caught up in another case where he can’t leave. Lucky him. Fortunately, this one doesn’t involve duct-tape. He doesn’t know that someone in the BO (out on a shopping lark?) saw him, informed Vodka/Gin, and so Gin and friends have set up assassins for Bourbon by mistake. I am going to ignore this for now because Bourbon doesn’t know about it. As the case draws on, people are using cellphones to take movies and stuff, at least one of which gets Bourbon on screen which he notices (you can see him looking back at the video taker). Bourbon really wants out of the dept store because the FBI might also see said footage if it gets broadcasted or posted online somewhere, then bring friends, and confront him. Adding to Bourbon’s woes is that Great Detective Mouri Kogoro is on the case!!!!!… and is failing miserably. Bourbon, who figured out the case as best as he could without an internet, decides to speed the case solving process along by pickpocketing someone’s phone so as not to compromise his own phone number, dredging up Kogoro’s cellphone number from when he stole it from Rena’s phone, and texting him the answer with the end-note to hurry it up already so we can leave! It works, and Bourbon heads for the front door. Whether he heard Jodie screaming from behind him or he just felt eyes on him, he looks up to see Chianti. He smirks at her because he is amused his disguise worked well enough to drag the other BO members out. He does take the opportunity to disappear because he doesn’t want to be shot. Meanwhile Vermouth comes up to talk to Gin and correct his misconceptions. Gin asks Vermouth if the boss agreed to this plan because he is pissed Bourbon has been jacking him around for the past few hours, then calls off the snipers and complains about Bourbon running around doing things on his own. Incidentally, Okiya stopping Jodie but merrily letting scar Akai go on his way resembles the practical philosophy about getting rid of bad guys that Sera showed when she tried to lure the hostage taker at the detective agency into police sniper sights. It runs in the family I guess. Conan just doesn't like dead people as the fox, elephant, and rat case revealed. Even if Conan strongly suspects Scar Akai might be Bourbon, there isn't any harm in screwing up the BO's plans anyway because Conan is an idealist who doesn't even want to see a bad person killed. There is additional benefit of covering one's bases on the offchance scar Akai is just some unfortunate lookalike citizen with a burn or the BO was targeting someone else at the department store. If Subaru did leave it, it could also be a matter of his investigation revealing (what did Okiya ask that lady anyway?) that someone was targeting them, and they shouldn't be out in public places like this because of what happened last time. Scar Akai could have left it as well. I'm still not sure.