The Strange Die

Chronology
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Chapter 1124
Information
Title:	The Strange Die
Japanese title:	奇妙なサイコロ (Kimyōna Saikoro)
Original release:	January 17th, 2024
Shōnen Sunday issue:	#8/2024
Volume:	106
Pages:	16
Viz Media version
English title:	The Strange Dice
English release:	January 17th, 2024 (Simulpub)

The Strange Die (奇妙なサイコロ ,Kimyōna Saikoro) is the 1124th chapter of the manga of Detective Conan. It was written by Gosho Aoyama, drawn by him and his assistants and first released in Shōnen Sunday #8/2024 on January 17, 2024 and will presumably be reprinted as part of Volume 106. It was released in English by Viz Manga on the same day under the name The Strange Dice.

Characters

Introduced

Man A
	Customer

Man B
	Customer

Man C
	Customer

Dice Man
	Suspicious man

Housekeeper A
	Previous housekeeper of Ishigami family

Housekeeper B
	Current housekeeper of Ishigami family

Featured

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ai Haibara Ayumi Yoshida Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Genta Kojima Miwako Sato Wataru Takagi Chihaya Hagiwara Jugo Yokomizo Pancake Restaurant Clerk Torakage Kamen Yaiba (enamel pin)

Settings

• Japan
  • Tokyo Prefecture
    • Beika Ward
      • Beika Town
  • Kanagawa Prefecture
    • Yokohama
      • Red Brick Warehouse
      • Yokohama Port Main Road

Plot

As Miwako listens spitefully, Takagi asks Chihaya which three people she said were looking suspicious in the restaurant, but Chihaya has him repeat his question again, as she was focused on eating her pancakes. After getting into the matter at hands, she points him towards the suspects, but says they need not to move too quickly to not alert the possible culprit about their presence. The first suspect is a blonde-haired man sitting 60 degrees to Takagi's right , who is wearing a very light shirt even though it is winter, meaning he could have just tossed away his jacket, and he has a black mark on his left shoe, possibly from a brake pedal, but both cannot verify from where they are sitting. The next suspect is 30 degrees to Takagi's right, a burly man who does not seem like he would eat at a brunch restaurant, and has a scrape on his left wrist, which could be from a motorcycle crash, as well as the scuff mark on his left shoe. Lastly, the third suspicious man is sitting right behind Takagi, and is wearing a sports jacket that does not match the rest of his outfit, meaning he could have just bought it, and has the scuff mark too. After debriefing Takagi, Chihaya tells Miwako on the other side of the phone call to be ready on her signal, as she splashes her glass's contents at Takagi. She then proceeds to call him a two-timing cheater and berates him, while making a gesture for him to look behind, and he does so, noticing the man with the sports jacket also got wet from the water and tends to him, asking him if he is alright. He checks the man's jacket at the same time and the mark on the shoe. Chihaya then says out loud that she will go to the restroom and intentionally drops her wallet when she passes the man with the light shirt, having him help her pick up the change. She asks him if he is feeling cold being dressed so lightly and he comes back at her saying he is actually feeling very hot. She also has the burly man sitting right next to the blonde-haired man pick up the remaining coins and asks him why he has a scratch on his arm, which he says simply came from hitting the wall after someone bumped him. Now, they managed to get all the intel needed on the three suspects.

Meanwhile, in Beika town, the Detective Boys asked the neighbours about young Shiori and they regroup at a street corner. Conan and Genta learned that all the neighbours know the stray cat and all call him Torakage just like them and that Shiori's grandmother Kaori is the one feeding it, as she puts out a bowl of food on her porch around noon for the cat. Ayumi and Mitsuhiko theorize that Shiori could be locked up in a place Torakage visits and she used the note so it could be delivered by Torakage to her grandmother, but this does not explain why she did not tie it around the cat's neck and just had it grab it with its teeth. Conan thinks there was probably a reason she could not do so, but she was probably not tied up since she could write the letter. Mitsuhiko, Ayumi and Haibara learned that there was a masked man wearing a cap that came to the Ishigamis' house the previous week and dropped dice on the house's nameplate. As they ran away, they left behind a single die, which Haibara shows Conan. Conan asks if they have the other dice and Haibara shows him pictures of the other dice. All have markings on them, and Conan deduces that it is the pigpen cipher, where letters are changed for fragments on a grid, in this case, the die's six faces. From this, he understands that the dice man is probably working with an accomplice that lives inside Ishigami mansion during that kidnapping case. From the markings on the die they have, it spells out "CHANCE", meaning a chance to act. The other two dice probably spelled "NEXT MONDAY" and meant for the kidnappers to put their plan into action that day. They then check Haibara's phone to see what the die spells and it says "ROGER", meaning the accomplice inside the house understood. Knowing this, Haibara tells the others the family hired a new housekeeper after the previous was fired for playing games on her phone, meaning the current live-in housekeeper could not use her phone and is thus the most likely accomplice. Mitsuhiko and Ayumi add that once, the new housekeeper's brother came to apologize since she was sick on her first day and the neighbours noticed he spoke in a weird accent. They figure out he was probably the kidnapper, since he had writing on his hand just like the dice man.

Genta suddenly remembers that kids were also talking about a peculiar bird that flew by the day of Shiori's kidnapping. Conan suddenly figures out what this means, after he takes glance at the torn sheet from Shiori. Back at the Red Brick Warehouse, Jugo Yokomizo and a colleague are going for lunch and they pass by Miwako in motorcycle officer outfit and when she asks her to get back to her post, she asks him to back off. A stunned Jugo leaves her be and gets a table for him and his colleague at the same pancake restaurant, and sees Chihaya sitting with Takagi, who he does not recognize. Chihaya and Takagi are talking about what they noticed about the suspects and confirm that the guy with the sports jacket definitely has a shift pedal mark and his jacket is probably brand new since the cardboard stays are still in the collar, that the blonde-haired guy also has the pedal mark and lied when he said he felt hot, since he had goosebumps and ordered two cups of hot tea, and that the burly guy had the mark too and lied when saying he scraped himself when he hit the wall, since he has another scrape on his knee, meaning he probably fell. As all three are still suspicious, they decide to wait until they get more clues from Conan and the kids.

Back at Beika, Conan just finishes a paper airplane with the paper and explains that Shiori probably folded that into something the cat would go after. This means that she is being held in a place that was right in front of them...

Trivia

• Chihaya is eating a Japanese soufflé-style banana pancake.

See also

• Manga
• Volume 101-110
• Detective Conan

References

Chapters not yet published in volume format