Chekhov MacGuffin

No, just not probably not interested in Vermouth romantically.

Except it is canon that Vermouth and Gin have... made mixed drinks. They are not hiding it either; Vermouth was hanging all over Gin at the bar in the Mysterious Passenger. Would the all-powerful boss really let Vermouth and Gin off the hook?Conan Drill page 239

I wondered what that was. I thought I was crazy when the bar went from an orangey color to dark blue.

Yeah, it's pretty complicated. About the only way I can make it make sense is to assume the criminals are one of the pairs of appraisers who wanted to steal one of Agasa's items (the rug). The problem with just going in, stunning Agasa, and taking it is that suspicion will naturally first fall on the appraisers who visited Agasa. Therefore, the pair had to come up with some other plan to try to steal the rug without Agasa realizing it, and make it look like random, unknown people were the culprits to avoid placing suspicion on themselves. Not wanting to actually kill anyone, they came up with this strange plan involving a desperate lost cat search in order to take the genuine rug and plant a fake rug so nobody will realize that the goal all along was the rug. If they just took the rug and Ayumi, then dumped Ayumi without the rug, it would be easier to realize that the cat thing was just some excuse they made up.Regarding which pair are the culprits, I think the middle aged couple are the baddies. If Agasa is going to talk to anyone about his schedule, kids, and stuff, this topic would be most natural for a middle aged couple. The young girls might find it weird and the father son team made Agasa angry so pleasantries are unlikely. In terms of their investigation methods, the middle aged couple not touching the pot is weird because makers marks are often placed on the bottom. The girl pair didn't seem very professional, like they didn't know what they were doing. The father son team did seem to know what they were doing though they didn't bring a magnifying glass, but they didn't accept Agasa's offer to buy the rug and the vase at 50000 yen (~$615 USD). I don't think the culprits would bother to stage a kidnapping for a rug worth less than that. Finally the middle aged couple also suggested that Agasa take the vase to a real appraiser which would get him out of the house, but also not show it to anyone else, perhaps because they are worried someone might mention the rug. The way the father son team reacted to Agasa's offer, I bet they knew the value of the carpet, but they walked out on it. They also joked about how "people without an eye for these things are sad", which would most certainly goad Agasa into trying harder to get a good evaluation, not the reaction thieves would want. The girl duo didn't mention the rug at all.

Time to swap out a question now that we have suspects for the two people and all. It is pretty obvious they were after the rug. Haibara even said the coffee would come right out in the wash, Agasa noted the rug was unstained indicating it was switched, and Conan stared right at it when pointing out the real aim was not the cat, Ayumi, or the vase. I have had a bad experience with coffee stains that didn't come out easily, but maybe the rug-nappers have a better technique than mine so they didn't care about getting coffee on the rug? I would have changed another one of questions to ask about Sera and Okiya's aid/interference later, but technically the people in the car haven't been revealed, and although it is easy to guess that the culprits were after the rug, Conan hasn't officially said so. I wish four questions were allowed... Old poll results (775)

Someone we haven't met yet!

No She'll probably reappear in the final file of this case. I wonder if she witnessed the break in at all? Maybe she will find Okiya's bugs if she barges in Agasa's house later. He could have planted them earlier, but wasn't listening at the time.

Lawyers sent a threatening letter saying no linking to Detective Conan videos. To avoid a fight, DCW removed all the links. So, you can't watch episodes here anymore.

Cute. I like the eyes!

I haven't done any account locking or blocking on the forums, although I did block a few IP ranges on the wiki roughly a month ago. I don't think that should cross over to this side, especially since that block wore off already. I can give further details if someone suspects that it is the source of the problem.

Go for it.

Once again, Agasa's house has been bugged. Bad Okiya! I wonder when he did it, or possibly he did so with Conan's help. It explains how he knew to follow the db in the prior chapter though. Now that I think about it, he probably didn't have Agasa's house bugged/wasn't listening in the 252 case which was the second most recent appearance of Okiya. He would have heard the kidnappers kidnapping Agasa and have made his move earlier. Maybe that case was a wake up call that he had to step up his protection. This case is really confusing without the translation with the cat, Eri, the mystery rug and all. I feel like a jerk for laughing when I found out the criminals had left Ayumi in the garbage area. Are the criminals attempting some sort of lure out gambit so they can re-invade Agasa's house? If so Okiya and his bugs would have heard them coming back. I think it's pretty certain that the two shadowpeople are going to be random criminals of the week, but no cheating on your votes now.

Not close enough and scar Akai wasn't in a particularly malicious mood? Haibara and the Prof were not on camera, so they weren't too close. Someone did start a scar Akai thread btw, but I suppose the Bourbon thread works as well.

There is no picture.

Moved. Personal status updates aren't really appropriate topics for general discussion.

V30-3; chap 298; ep 241

The mystery solution was so illogically bad, I became depressed that I wasted my time watching it.

(This post for people trying to follow along) The problem is that it is just speculation at this point because there aren't any in-manga clues for how Okiya changes his voice, so it is not a reason that Okiya is Akai. It does provide a counterpoint the occasionally-used argument that Okiya can't be Akai because they sound different, but the list isn't for rebuttals to every argument that can be made that Okiya is not Akai because then the list would get very long, and it would be hard to decide what counterpoints deserve inclusion.

Oi oi, in this situation it's better just to link The List. If that doesn't convince them, then no amount of deduction will.

My guess is he simply worked to sound different through hard practice like a voice actor would. They practice speaking at a higher or lower pitch, articulating differently, etc, in order to make a "new voice". It is not like he has to copy someone, it's easier just to make a new voice up and doesn't require much talent at all. He has also been chasing Vermouth for a while now; I would imagine Akai wondered at one point how she manages to change her voice. He might have also had to learn how to modify his voice as part of a disguise while he was in the BO, since the BO likes disguises.It's also possible the reason he wears really high collars is that he has something concealed on his neck related to voice changing, but that most likely would be a device of Agasa and I don't know if Agasa knows about Okiya.

I think Sera is too short to be Akai in disguise, but now I need brain bleach because I just imagined Akai wearing the Teitan girl's uniform. Sister of Akai, yes.

That's what I am doing.Also, back on DCTP I started a thread of ideas and speculations about pretty much everything. It's outdated though, there is new stuff to add and some minor corrections to be made, so it may not be worthwhile to read. It's also long. Very long.

Misae seems to be a gag character more than anything. Also she was introduced rather late.Regarding the boss's age at 70+, I have a hunch the boss has aging wonkiness going on as well. My theory, although without evidence, is the boss was involved in the same project that Vermouth, aka Sharon Vineyard's mother, was affected by 50+ years ago. (Relevant posts copied below for convenience)