Chekhov MacGuffin

I said as much on DCTP, but I am worried that Gosho's quote about Rum appearing before refers to a one-off gag panel where he had a character called Lum from another Shounen Sunday manga appear as the newest Black Organization member Rum. I have no suspects at the moment. Kuroda is the "too suspicious so he's a good guy" archetype. There was that one-eyed guy from the last Magic Kaito case, but he was too dumb and uncool. There are some other intelligent characters who have appeared recently, but they are either accounted for as other plot important characters (e.g. Shuukichi = akai middle bro) or haven't done anything suspicious (e.g. Koumei). Basically I'm waiting for something to actually happen (The Rum arc equivalent of Okiya moving into the Kudo house or Scar Akai appearing at Teito bank) that would signal the plot is afoot.

My good mic is out of commission, so I'm not in a good position to host or guest. I'm not a very experienced postcaster anyway. I cringe every time I hear the old casts where I was a guest. I would focus on getting caught up with manga stuff if possible since there would be interest in Rum arc discussion. Consider soliciting advice on what people want to hear and what to keep and change of the old show format. Maybe draw up a test topic agenda for one episode. You are also going to need some audio editing software. I don't have any recs but you can probably find someone who knows. Try recording just yourself talking about Conan/mystery stuff for 5 minutes and splice an intro in just to get an idea of the work involved and how to carry a show as host.

CarpetCrawler is pretty long gone. I don't think he will mind if someone took over the show. What do you mean by you aren't completely caught up?

This is an overly literal meaning of the word wizard. Are you maybe not a native English speaker? "Wizard" in English not only refers to the magical being that performs sorcery, but it can also refer to someone who highly skilled and can put on a performance. A math wizard is someone who solves difficult equations with grace and style, almost like they have magical insight. (Wizard also has this double meaning in Japanese as far as my dictionary tells me. There is a Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney soundtrack title for when Phoenix is stomping somebody in the courtroom called "The Courtroom's Magician." Masumi is an English speaker anyway.) When Shinichi used "Shiranpuri" in Red vs. Black to make everyone but the culprit sit down, you can call that moment a "spell" from a detective wizard. Shinichi also has the habit of turning the culprit's tricks into his own performances like they are acts in a magic show, like having Takagi hide invisibly in a pool and then suddenly appear on command, or make Sera appear from a chest of fruits. Wizard absolutely fits Shinichi's "explain the trick, reveal the culprit" style, especially if you are an impressionable child like Masumi. With the right sort of trick in the past case of waves, I can definitely see Shinichi doing something that appears to be magical to show the truth. About the rest of your post, you've made a bunch of suggestions but haven't tied them together into a coherent theory. It was like reading a stream of consciousness rather than organized thoughts. Maybe I can help you sort it out by spinning the argument around: 1) Do you have any evidence that shows Conan is not the Wizard? 2) If the Wizard is the unknown child, do each of the wizard clues and their timing make sense? Edit: To make life easier, can anyone help me list the chapters where wizards are discussed (Post Sera)? Manga Volume 81, File 11 (861), pg 15-16: "Just like Magic" Middle bro asks if Sera has met the wizard. "You could say so" Manga Volume 83, File 2 (874), pg 8: "The Red Past" Sera's purpose in coming to Japan is to meet the Wizard once more. Manga Volume 86, File 1 (905) Ran has a flashback. Child Sera says "You are a wizard, right?"

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There are a lot of hints but the most obvious one is from the bowling alley case In a PS, Masumi's middle brother asks if she "has already met the Wizard?" Masumi turns towards Conan when thinking of the answer "You could say so". There is also Ran's memory of a young Masumi calling somebody a wizard. If Ran heard it, undoubtedly Shinichi will have been somewhere with her. Most people have speculated that Shinichi acquired the nickname from his solving the case in his past during the sound of waves incident where he and Ran met Masumi and Mary. Wizard itself probably refers to some case solution where Shinichi demonstrated the trick and the truth was revealed like magic - that's one of Shinichi's favorite way of doing things. "Even when Masumi's reason for coming to Japan must have to do with MG" is a pretty huge assumption. For all we know, her reason for coming to Japan is because she wants Shinichi to solve her mother's case. Maybe she was looking for her older bro at first, but then settled on Shinichi's help when she couldn't make contact. Maybe she saw Conan on the news/Shuuichi's pictures and realized that Shinichi may have been affected by the same problem as her mother and wanted to find out the truth. Because Masumi gave Shinichi that nickname after the incident in the past with the sound of waves. Ran has a memory of young Sera at that time calling someone a wizard. Middle Bro/Haneda was probably there at the time of the incident, or heard about the incident from Masumi later. Mary was probably there at the incident because Ran believes she met the mystery girl sometime in the past. At that age, where Masumi looks 6-7, Haneda would still be in high school and would be with his mother still.

Assuming what Masumi said was true, she and Mary have been living in America up until now (unless they came for a vacation, or mom wanted to figure out how her firstborn son died, or something). As a highschooler, Masumi would still be living at home with her mom, unless she went to a boarding school. I assume Mary has not remarried, so that means she should be living alone with Masumi. If Mary just ran away from home to hide, then Masumi would be left alone to fend for herself as a high schooler and a target of the Black Organization. Masumi might have also been first on the scene and found out about the shrink, or Mary called for a rescue, or Masumi was the most convenient help available who could be trusted. Secrecy-wise Masumi appears to have been known as an Akai already by the BO. Bourbon recognized her in Detective's Nocturne, approached her as Scar Akai in 801, and then Vermouth as Scar Akai disabled Masumi von Karma style on the mystery train after saying "You haven't changed at all, Masumi" with Akai's voice. The Vermouth part is key, if it was something Bourbon was keeping to himself as secret police then he wouldn't have brought it up with Vermouth. Dragging Haneda in, who appears to have escaped notice for now, might not have added much additional help, especially if Mary can handle being the brain while Masumi is the brawn. Mary might be able to contact Haneda by phone anyway.

I kind of wanted to revisit one of my sections of my currently oudated theory about the middle brother, now assuming that brother is Shuukichi and the Wizard is Shinichi. At the time, I already made the assumption that Masumi knows Conan's true identity, and thus can deduce Shinichi disappeared for some reason and Conan appeared in his place. Shuukichi knows Shinichi is Conan, but is keeping this a secret from Masumi This argument has two parts: 1) deducing the unseen contents of Sera's text and Shuukichi's return text main body, and 2) analyzing the exchange to prove Shuukichi may know Conan is Shinichi. It also assumes that Shuukichi knows the Wizard refers to Shinichi. The two unseen text parts were Masumi asking Shuukichi how he knew Conan and Shuukichi's reply that he met Conan at a case prior After the exchange in the bowling alley case (Masumi shows her brother Conan's picture thinking he will be surprised. Masumi is shocked when the brother replies back that "if it's him, then there's no problem".(861.4)), Sera texts something we didn't get to see to her brother. Shuukichi later sends a reply to Masumi that we also don't get to see, which makes Masumi react "Ah, I see. So that's how it is." In that same reply's PS, Shuukichi asks Masumi if she has met the Wizard. Masumi knows Conan didn't exist prior to Shinichi shrinking. That means that her brother must know Conan because either: 1) he some experience with Conan as Conan or someone talked about Conan with him before 2) he figured out Conan is Shinichi. Masumi doesn't yet know which of the two explanations are true for her brother. Given the previous exchange, the single, most logical followup question Sera could ask her brother is how he knows him. In fact, that's exactly what Masumi was thinking after she got his message (861p4). Masumi's thought reply "Ah, I see. So that's how it is."(861.15-16) to her brother's answer fits a conversation where Shuukichi explained something after being questioned. The reason why this part of the conversation was kept hidden from the reader is because it would spoil who the middle brother is because it would shortlist Shuukichi as a suspect who had met Conan during a case. Circling back to which of the two possible explanations above applies to Shuukichi, the one he must have claimed in the reply can only be the first; Shuukichi had a prior experience with Conan as Conan. Specifically Shuukichi said he had been with Conan when a murder case happened. This is the most likely response because it is truthful. The only reason for Shuukichi to use another explanation and lie is to avoid Masumi pressing Conan for details on the murder that could lead Masumi to his doorstep. I don't think that is reasonable because Shuukichi doesn't seem especially concerned about avoiding Masumi. He did due diligence in not telling her where he lives or that he is a professional Shogi player, but he isn't avoiding public appearances where she might recognize him. One thing Shuukichi's reply could definitely not be is something like, "I recognize Conan is Shinichi" or "I met him a long time ago". Sera's reaction to his reply was some surprise, but not a whole lot, as well as a little happy blushing. Overall, his answer satisfies her. If Shuukichi had tried to cover for himself with a vague half-truth like "I met Conan a long time ago", Masumi would catch the lie and not be satisfied with that answer because she knows that Shinichi only disappeared recently. If Shuukichi had come out with something like "I know Conan is Shinichi", that would have surprised Sera more than she was shown to be. Also, that would mean Sera would now know Conan is Shinichi and there would be no reason for Shuukichi to then ask if she had met the Wizard (Shinichi). Shuukichi may have brought up the Wizard as a test for Sera because he knew Conan is Shinichi After Sera texts her brother Conan's picture without telling him about her suspicions about Conan's true identity, Shuukichi then asks if she met the Wizard. It seems non-coincidental for Shuukichi to bring up the Wizard right after Sera reveals to him she met Conan. On top of his high deduction skills, Shuukichi has a special ability "the best memory in Japan" that would enable him to figure out Conan was Shinichi decisively. We know he has a memory for people because both Yumi and Masumi attempt to leverage his ability to remember details about suspects for a murder case. Masumi has neglected to tell her brother that she knows Conan is Shinichi, and until now she had withheld the identity of the detective she had been competing and collaborating with, so the brother is probably not aware that she knows Conan's secret identity. Thus, he may have asked her about the Wizard in order to probe if she knows Conan's identity without revealing that he himself already knows Conan is Shinichi. At this point, the main issue is when Shuukichi had the opportunity to meet Shinichi so he had a reference point when he met Conan. The middle brother might have been present at the ocean meeting with Sera, Shinichi, and Ran since he knows about "The Wizard" in the first place. The decisive evidence would be Ran's feelings about him. So far Ran has felt Masumi and the unknown child are familiar, most likely in connection with the past waves event that has been foreshadowed. Ran and Shuukichi have not been in the same cases together so far. The other, less important problem is whether he understands the shrinking problem, after all it is more likely to think two children from the same parents with different ages look exactly alike than one is the same child shrunken. Shuukichi does have two potential sources of info to help him. One is Shuuichi, his brother who he may also advise on cases. (I feel this is unlikely because Shuuichi is very reticent regarding deductions.) The other and more likely possibility is that he is aware of "the unknown sister from outside the domain" who many presume to be shrunk by APTX or something else. They are avoiding each other because the child feels she is under threat and does not want to drag Shuukichi into danger.

If Sato orders extra food because she plans to "work out intensively" tonight, Takagi better eat a little more too or he won't be able to keep up... EDIT: NO WHY DID SATO TURN HIM DOOOWN!? Was the friend who did Sato's and Takagi's disguise Yukiko?

Sorry bumping this topic so it gets more attention. I am fishing for at least 10 feedbacks.

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I lean towards a more recent drug point, something that happened well after Elena and Atsushi's accident. (Mary might have been involved in that but not shrunken at the time) There is no compelling reason not to think that Mary was drugged after Conan was chronologically. Mary is still acting like there is a clear and present danger that requires staying out of sight and shuffling hotels constantly. All that movement gets old fast and would almost certainly have a detriment on Masumi's schooling. Ran is always right as far as her instincts about people. She recognizes people who have changed appearance, like Okiya. Ran has probably unconciously connected the adult woman from her memories with the middle-schooler she sees in front of her.

I have heard that term before. Edit: Vermouth --> Gin line It caused some consternation until someone figured out it basically meant work buddy. Activity I think is a shorthand for work stuff.

I posted this in reply to a PM, but I thought it would be useful here. There are pretty much two lines of thought on how Mrs. Mary Sera nee Akai nee Sera deaged into a middle-school body. One is Shiho's APTX 4869 was applied recently. The other is an older drug like Silver Bullet was used on her a longer time ago. If her shrinking condition is older, then it would need more explanation because the rest of the BO minus Vermouth behaves like shrinking isn't currently possible. That old fart Pisco kept up with the Miyanos and acted like APTX4869's deaging affect was a new thing that Shiho developed recently when he saw it in action. On the other hand, we know Vermouth wasn't minted recently, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that Silver Bullet or the hypothetical drug that predated it was responsible. I think we definitely can assume that, whatever happened, Mary had a Little Lamb had an adult body when she conceived Masumi, giving an upper time bound of 16-17 years ago for her extreme weightloss. All things considered, it's unlikely the rank and file BO executives like Gin know about shrinking. That leaves a few possibilities for how sudden negative mass happened. One is that Miss Mary Mack was targeted for death and drugged like Conan and left alone to die. Canary Mary might have got it because she was the wife of Papa Akai, or because she is/was a spy for MI6, or because she was the sister of Elena Miyano. The other possibility that comes to mind is she was involved in the "accident" the Miyanos knew were coming that vanished the both of them. Let's say Elena and Mary were involved with MI6 as many have speculated. Elena and Atsushi were ready to flounce from the Organization because they had a second kid, a breakthrough on their drug, and wanted a more colorful wardrobe. MI6 prepared a fake accident that accidentally became a real accident and Silver Bullet accidentally sprayed everywhere accidentally. Mary Sue got caught up in it and was cursed to retake sixth grade, permanently. Despite these hypotheses, at this point, there is no firm evidence yet to differentiate between the two drugs and time frames or explain why a shrinking drug was involved in the first place. The only hint on when Mary Poppins might have been shrunk came at the end of the completely ridiculous pool case. (Seriously that case's trick was so forced.) Ran commented about remembering the unknown child from long ago around the time she met Sera. That would about 10-12 years in the past, a lower bound for HMS Queen Mary's age jettison. "That girl too, I feel like I previously [met]" (ref 905pg16) The problem is that you can validly argue Ran is conflating Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary with memories of Masumi since they look alike. Rum is a likely suspect for some part in all of this because it is his arc, but there are no guarantees.

If I quoted you properly I would see inside the spoiler box by accident. I thought fingerprints on a the beads of a broken necklace first. Then I thought about glasses after that. I still don't know what the right answer is except that the glasses explain some more stuff. I thought "normal sauce" was maybe some kind of other viscous brown sauce. It never occurred to me plain vinegar would be called sauce. Well soy sauce is mostly opaque, but I wouldn't try to hide anything in it when it is in a clear glass bottle. Something metallic inside might make a clink sound when poured and you could still see whatever it is up against the bottom of the bottle. It's the solution that makes the most sense, so I won't oppose it, but still it's risky. Personally I would have chosen the inside of the toilet paper tube that is still on the holder or one earring in each in the indents on both sides where the central roll-holding bar is supported after replacing the roll with a fresh one (only if it is small) so it won't run out until the next evening. Wrap the earrings with toilet paper to hold everything in place properly. Or I would hide them in the opaque soap/hand creme dispenser in the bathroom. No chance of mixups. Even the corner of the vend slot of the vending machine out front would work because most people don't go feeling into the far corners of those to avoid ickiness (people look for change but rarely investigate the vend slot.). But... That's really important. The vacuum won't work if the airflow at the swinging end is occluded by some sort of glove or other windblocking material. The vacuum effect isn't that strong! So it needs to be mesh or close to mesh. Well, technically the vacuum will work without a collecting bag, but it will just fling stuff everywhere.

I'm not looking at any solutions. There are a few things that bother me at the moment. Why the culprit would need to vacuum anything in the first place? The treasure in question is just two earrings. If they were dropped, they could be picked up easily. If the stones broke into a zillion pieces such that a vacuum was necessary, the value is so severely reduced that it doesn't make sense to bother with them. Something else must have broke into many pieces that required a vacuum. My first thought is a necklace broke, but the victim was shown wearing an intact one in the dead-on-the-steps panel. The culprit would have had to put a new one on her which is odd, unless that specific necklace was also a target. I do notice that the necklace is new. The victim wasn't wearing one in a flashback, while the other lady suspect was, at least some of the time. Glasses are another option, because they could shatter into many small pieces. They might also embed themselves into shoes when stepped on, thus making that mysterious clack noise as the culprit ran. If the culprit was farsighted, he might not be able to see all the little pieces on the ground, hence the need for the hose vacuum. ... Oh, would you look at that, the glasses on the part-timer are different in the flashback in Part 2 on Page 10 versus the ones the guy is wearing now. Dammit, Gosho, you tricky son-of-a.... Anyway, the culprit wore the glasses minus the lenses and hoped no one would notice. It worked for Conan. Oh man, and then because the thief can't read up close, he made the same mistake as Yumi, mixing up the normal sauce and the soy sauce since he dumped his treasure in one of the bottles. He dumped the glasses glass in the toilet tank. He doesn't finish the bottle because he can see the treasure is not at the bottom. That's still pretty damn risky because someone else could use the sauce to completion, or look at the bottom of the bottle. One thing that bothers me is that the hose vacuum needs a cloth or bag at the end which is porous. The hose trick does not work if air is not rapidly flowing over the opening of the hose. Without holes in the bag, you don't get airflow. None of the suspects have ideal materials for the mesh bag that would be needed. Maybe you could disassemble a cough mask for gauze since it is designed for airflow to go by it, but it's not a very ideal material. (then again the culprit didn't have time to hunt for ideal materials). You might also be able to rip a pocket out from your pants, but I think the police would have noticed that. Still not going to look at solutions. I want some time to think of problems and fix them.

Currently the Black Organization page lists multiple non-canon Black Organization members alongside the canon ones in the list of members, Organization structure diagram, and rankings. This includes movie-only BO, Conan Special BO, and BO from other Conan spinoffs. The reason I think this issue is important right now is because the page is at a crossroad. The page is being pulled in two directions. One philosophy is that the page should be inclusive of all matters BO regardless of canon. The other side wants to carefully label and segregate manga-canon from not-manga canon to preserve the page as a reference because only the manga-canon information is useful to solving any of the ongoing mysteries in Detective Conan. The main page can't be both things and do both well. Is the Black Organization page more useful to you as a reference for plot related topics which would benefit from segregation of manga-canon from non-manga-canon, or as a mixed overview of everything which doesn't benefit from segregation?

Holy hell, this is amazing! It's got the case closed-type vibe too! I

Working on this. Bump the topic if I haven't finished in a week or two.

Done

Running with the theory that the unknown child is the mother, and that she is British and the sister of Elena Miyano, I bet the rich family friend who has been supporting Masumi Sera's hotel stays is James Black. James was originally from London before he moved to the Unites States. Also Elena, maybe Daddy Akai, and James Black have connections to the British MI6.

I fixed the spelling