What's notable is that none of these three major characters never leave the story after the Bourbon arc ends. The cases where each of these three characters are introduced are all normal, three chapter long short-stories that take place in average settings. However what I want to do is understand more about the details in the mind of Gosho Aoyama when he introduces the three rather unique Bourbon cast characters in seemingly normal cases and see how he does these small things differently, so I've decided to make posts overviewing everything about each of the cases that introduce these three suspect-type characters in this very long series, starting from the earliest introduction case of Subaru Okiya in volume 60 and later moving to Masumi Sera and then finally Amuro Tooru.
Part 1 - Red, White, And Yellow (File 622)
The Kir story arc is over after the great showdown between the FBI and the "
Black Organization" went down in the
Clash of Red and Black arc, effectively ending the conflicts for now. Now, it's time to start the next part of the story. We start chapter 622 off with a cover page foreshadowing a new member of the Black Organization being introduced in this case, but what will their alcoholic beverage-themed codename be, let alone their identity? All that's left to be seen.
The case starts at Teitan elementary school. The rain is falling down outside and we see a hand opening up Kojima Genta's (one of the Detective Boys) locker that contains only a pair of large-sized dirty sneakers. Genta's locker has a paper taped on that has three things written on it: 1. a logo of "Detective Boys"/a drawn character with Sherlock Holmes's hat that smokes a pipe, 2. Genta has written "Mysteries to Solve!!" on the paper, and 3. the paper says that Genta is on 1st Year's Class B of the Teitan Elementary School.
The
Detective Boys; Genta Kojima, Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya, Ayumi Yoshida, along with Conan Edogawa and Ai Haibara, note that there are no requests in the locker. The paper taped on Genta's drawer is supposed to lure students to leave requests inside the drawer that the
Detective Boys could solve, however, there is nothing. According to Haibara it's better that days are peaceful because no one has requested anything. Conan agrees with her and tells the Detective Boys that since they don't live in a novel or TV drama, cases just don't happen that conveniently [DOUBT].
Conan gets a phone call from a number he doesn't recognize and goes a bit away from the others to talk. A very familiar voice calling Conan "cool kid" reaches Conan's ears and he realizes the one on the phone is Jodie Starling, an FBI agent and a teacher. Jodie called Conan at this moment because she knows when their school usually ends. Conan asks Jodie about what she's been doing as he hasn't managed to contact her for a while. According to Jodie, her phone broke during the Siranpuri Case so she had to change her phone and decided to change her phone number at the same time as the Vermouth and Kir incidents were pretty serious. Jodie is in the car with another FBI agent, James Black, who Conan also knows. Jodie tells Conan that she'd given her new number to Kir as well as she's infiltrating the organization and Kir had called her immediately after that.
According to Kir, she's being trailed but managed to find a moment to call Jodie a short phone call informing her of a new member of the "
Black Organization" that is now on the move. The new member is known to be skilled at inspection and information gathering and is known to be quite smart. The member's name is
Bourbon. Kir tells the FBI to be careful and shuts the phone. Jodie wonders that Bourbon might be quite skilled and the reason why Bourbon has begun to move must be
Sherry, who is Ai Haibara, one of the Detective Boys, herself. Ai Haibara, or Sherry, is the creator of the drug APTX4869. She was shrunken the same way as Conan did into an elementary schooler from an adult body when she tried taking her own life with the drug. Jodie tells Conan that even though they want to protect Haibara, they can't as they'd risk getting found out. Jodie tells Conan that they will leave protecting Haibara to him and they will stay out of Haibaras field for a while, however if anything happens Conan is always free to call Jodie.
Conan shuts the call and things of Bourbon with a serious expression. This was when Conan characters had flip phones by the way, now in 2019 they have androids. The Detective Boys wonder what they should be doing as they were planning to play baseball but it's been raining the whole day so that doesn't seem likely. Conan tells them that it's better to just go play video games at Professor Agasa's house and they agree. Haibara then, after watching Conan talk before, ask Conan what he's going to talk about with Professor Agasa. Haibara seems to have realized that the person who called Conan earlier was Jodie Starling, also known as Jodie-sensei. Conan tells that it's nothing for Haibara to worry about but Haibara picks up on Conan's phrasing choices and tells that then there's something Conan is hiding from her again but Conan still plays stupid and won't tell Haibara anything.
As Conan and Haibara talk, Mitsuhiko shouts that something has happened. Ayumi thinks that Mitsuhiko meant that something happened between Conan and Haibara (both of their faces are very comedic with dot eyes as they look back at Ayumi) but Mitsuhiko tells that he's not talking about them but the person behind them, that's the one that something has happened to as that person, a boy, is dropping a letter in the Detective Boys locker. The boy notices the Detective Boys and they decide to go out on a walk to ask what the boy needs help with.
Outside, the rain has stopped. The Detective Boys learned that the boy is a 1st grader in Class A of Teitan High, Sugiura Kaito. Sugiura told the Detective Boys that his father's a landlord of a small apartment complex in which three people live and one of the three is doing strange things every night. That's what Sugiura wants the Detective Boys to investigate.
Genta tells everyone to stay at Sugiura's house for the night and have a lookout. Ayumi agrees with Genta as it's Saturday the next day, so there is no need to wake up to school. Sugiura tells everyone that this day is not fitting for a sleepover as he'll be playing Othello with his father. Haibara asks Sugiura if that is why he tried to contact the Detective Boys by putting a letter into the shoebox after the Detective Boys should have gone home and Sugiura agrees but he wanted help and hadn't thought that if the Detective Boys had already left for home, they would only be able to read the letter the next monday due to the weekend.
Conan asks Sugiura what the strange things are that the person has been doing. Sugiura looks at Conan with a happy face and tells him to come to his house the next day to find out and calls Conan "
Kuroshi Edogawa." Conan agrees to come but is put off a bit by his new nickname. Sugiura tells the Detective Boys to come to his apartment at noon during Saturday the next day since Sugiura wants to show them his apartment and room. As Sugiura leaves he tells them to visit his house, his family apartment is called Mokubasou and it's at Beikachou 2 Choume #23, and he calls Conan
"Kuroshi... Edogawa" once more. The Detective Boys wonder what's up with him talking mostly about Conan and what the Kuroshi stuff is about. Ayumi wonders if he'd wanted to say "
Yoshoriku" instead as that means "
Thanks."
Conan starts thinking seriously about the area Beikachou 2 Choume #23 and Haibara asks if he knows something about the apartment but Conan decides to answer that he'd just thought that the place is pretty close to Professor Agasa's house. Haibara tells him that she passes the apartment most of the time on her way home (as Haibara lives with Professor Agasa, and Professor Agasa is the neighbor of Conan and knows that Conan is Shinichi - Agasa, the genius inventor who builds nothing but trash mostly, is Conan's first ally. Also, what Conan explained to Haibara about the apartment is not true. There's a real reason regarding Okiya Subaru. This is quite interesting piece of writing how Conan, the main character, fools the audience and one of those moments that make the Bourbon arc re-read all the better as you notice these things). Haibara tells Conan that the apartment where Sugiura's also live is old and small but still a pretty nice place.
The day transitions to the next. It's Saturday noon now. Conan and rest of the Detective Boys have gathered at the address that Sugiura gave them, however only to see the apartment be nothing more than charcoal as it was burned down by a fire overnight. Haibara tells everyone that there were sirens ringing the previous night but she never thought they'd come from Sugiura's apartment - remember, she lives nearby and Conan remembers that address (this is honestly pretty impressive foreshadowing x2). The Detective Boys get anxious about what in the world would have happened to Sugiura Kaito, the boy they met the previous day at school who was supposed to play Othello with his father, but then Inspector Yuminaga makes his appearance.
Inspector Yuminaga, who Conan met during Red Horse Case, sees their worry and tells the Detective Boys that the young boy Sugiura is safe. Sugiura got minor burns in the fire but was rescued by a firefighter and is sleeping at the hospital now. Conan asks him if anyone died in the fire. The inspector tells Conan that fortunately no one lost their lives in the fire but the father of Kaito Sugiura is in critical condition right now, barely able to breath. Inspector Yuminaga also says that the mother of Kaito was away on a trip with her friend and is going to the hospital now. Also, the apartment housed three other people who were all out when the fire occurred and only came back this day, the Saturday morning.
Conan wonders why none of them were at home even though the fire happened at 2:30 a.m. during the night. Inspector Yuminaga theorizes that because the other residents weren't children, there should be nothing strange about them being out for the night and coming back in the evenings. Genta tells Yuminaga that one of "the three" must have set the fire on the apartment. Ayumi explains that Sugiura had told them the previous day that one of the three other people who lived in the apartment were doing "strange things at night." Inspector Yuminaga asks them what those things could be but the Detective Boys don't know the answer and they explain that they were in the scene to investigate what those strange things could be.
After hearing the Detective Boys mention those strange things, Inspector Yuminaga asks the other officers on the scene to bring the three other resident members to him as they stand nearby. We get multiple panels of the three walking towards Yuminaga, Conan, Haibara and the rest of the Detective Boys as Haibara looks towards them and her inner sixth sense "Black Organization" alarm goes off. The panels get bigger and bigger as the frames close in on Haibara who realizes one of the Men in Black must be part of the group of three that Yuminaga called there.
Haibara grabs and hides behind Conan while looking at the three people of the burned-down residence. Conan asks Haibara if something is wrong but as her heart starts to beat more and more rapidly she is unable to say much. We get to see Haibara's inner thoughts about how her sixth sense works. It's as if someone with a piercing gaze is hunting down their pray as they emanate pressure that makes Haibara feel like it's gouging her insides out. Haibara absolutely knows that someone from the organization is there but wonders why. The Detective Boys gather and ask if Haibara is feeling okay but she just thinks about escaping as quickly as possible. If she were to stay there, the Organization might start to target all the kids as well.
Then all of a sudden something snaps in her head and Haibara gets surprised... The sixth sense alarm is gone without a trace. Conan asks again if she's alright and Haibara tells him yes as Inspector Yuminaga along with the three people who lived in the burned-down residence are there next to the Detective Boys. Yuminaga asks the Detective Boys who the person out of the three is that Sugiura Kaito claimed was doing suspicious things at night but the Detective Boys just tell him that they don't know, after all, they came to the apartment this Saturday morning to ask Sugiura himself and investigate the suspect.
Conan asks who the three that Inspector Yuminaga brought there are, so he gives their backgrounds:
1. Hosoi Ryuhei, a carpenter
2. Okiya Subaru, a graduate student
3. Makabe Ginya, a freelance worker
An investigator comes forward to Yuminaga and gives him a book that they found from the ruins of the apartment that was set on fire overnight possibly by one of the three suspects. Inspector Yuminaga takes a look at it and notices that the book is Sugiura Kaito's diary. Remember that Sugiura is one of the Teitan elementary school students and the person that called the Detective Boys to the apartment to investigate the oddities of what one of the three people introduced have been doing every night.
Inspector Yuminaga wonders if Kaito's diary contains any information about the fire. Sugiura Kaito's diary reads:
"October 5th (one day previous from when the apartment was set on fire). The weather's been dull since this morning. I have to go to school early, but I bet the red guy can sleep late."
Yuminaga wonders who the red guy mentioned is but the diary continues.
"When I came home from school, I tripped at the doorway. Thank goodness the white person was just about to leave!"
"Tonight, the Red person, White person and even the Yellow person aren't home... I'm all alone with just my dad! I want to play more, but... the detectives are coming tomorrow so I guess I'll go to sleep early!"
"I wonder who that is? someone came home late tonight and he's arguing with my dad..."
"It's the yellow person... I wonder if his strange actions were found out by dad? This is scary so I'll block my ears and sleep... I'll have to talk about this to Edogawa after I get up tomorrow."
The diary ends.
The Detective Boys tell Yuminaga that the "Yellow Person" must clearly be the one who set the fire as the person is lying about coming back home at morning, as all three of the suspects all claim that they were out at night when the apartment was set on fire, and the "Yellow Person" is the only one mentioned in the diary to have come back home late at night - so this person must lie about the time they came back because they set the apartment on fire and they possibly even tried to assassinate the father if Kaito Sugiura. Inspector Yuminaga then only has couple of questions question: Yellow, White, Red... Who is who out of the three suspects and how to identify them?
/Chapter 622 END
What a fascinating way to kick off this short-case. The chapter opens up with the Bourbon story arc beginning as Jodie warns Conan and tells him to look after Haibara as the FBI can't pull in much attention. Then we get introduced to Sugiura Kaito who explains about the situation he's facing; one person in his apartment is acting suspiciously every night and he needs the Detective Boys to investigate what this person is doing, but not this friday night but the next day as he's going to play Othello with his father. The way that the case is explained to the reader is interesting as we entirely skip Sugiura Kaito's explanation and we learn of the case from the Detective Boys recapping about the problem to Kaito after Kaito explained it to them.
Then we get a pretty damn cool foreshadowing with the apartment that not many notice for sure, it's one of those scenes that make the Bourbon arc worth re-reading in its entirety. There are actually two things that make this apartment and its residents interesting in the overarching storyline, and it's interesting that the apartment gets wrecked now that I think about it.
We skip to the following day, Saturday, to see the Detective Boys - Conan, Ai Haibara, Mitsuhiko, Genta and Ayumi - at the apartment that Sugiura Kaito was supposed to live at. Then things turn to worse as they notice that the entire apartment complex is in ruins, completely burnt-down overnight. We get re-introduced to Inspector Yuminaga who is at the scene (Yuminaga is familiar from the Red Horse Case). The inspector explains to the Detective Boys that Kaito is alrightand no one has died, however Kaito's father is in critical condition.
After the Detective Boys explain about the suspicious person that's been doing things at night to the inspector, Yuminaga calls three other residents of the apartment to him as they were standing nearby. As the three arrive, Haibara's sixth-sense that warns her of a nearby Black Organization member, sets off, telling the reader that an organization member must be nearby. However not much time passes and the sixth sense alarm stops, even though all three of the suspects are still nearby. What could be the cause of this?
All three of the suspects claim that all of them were out at night and they only came back in the morning. However when an investigator appears and gives Inspector Yuminaga a book that was found in the ruins of the apartment, which happens to be Sugiura Kaito's journal, things get more light shed on it. The journal describes the three people who live in the same apartment as Sugiura's as the "White," "Yellow" and "Red" person and the journal reveals that the "Yellow person" came home late at night and had a fight with Kaito's father. This means that one of the suspects is lying about being away at night and coming home at morning. Now, it's all left for Yuminaga and the Detective Boys to figure out how to identify who this yellow person is...
Part 2 - Kuroshiro-Kun (File 623)
The hunt for the Yellow person is on as Sugiura Kaito's journal that was found from the burning apartment reveals that the three suspects are the Yellow, White and Red person and out of the three the Yellow person has the highest probability of having set the apartment complex into fire overnight as, according to Kaito's journal, the Yellow person had a fight with Kaito's father late at night, meaning that one of the three suspects are lying about not coming back home at night.
An investiator informs Inspector Yuminaga about how he's finished askin the three suspects all the normal questions. Yuminaga tells the investigator about Sugiura Kaito who was saved from the fire and about how Kaito asked the Detective Boys - Conan, Haibara, Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko - day prior to investigate one of the tree residents who have been doing something suspicious each night.
Inspector Yuminaga gives the journal to another investigator on the scene who then reads Kaito's remarks about how the "Red person" can sleep late, Kaito tripping at the doorway and thinking that it's good that the "White person" was just about to leave the apartment and Kaito's mentions about how none of the Red, White or the Yellow person are home all night. The detective also reads the last part about the Yellow person coming back late at night and had a fight with Kaito's father and Kaito in his journal assumes that his father figured out the suspicious things the Yellow person has been doing every night.
The investigator comes to the natural conclusion that the Yellow person must be the culprit but Inspector Yuminaga tells him that they would have to know the criteria in which Kaito Sugiura came up with these nicknames before knowing which person is which color. The investigator starts to go through the suspects and how they look:
1. Hosoi-san, carpenter. He has a band-aid on his left cheek.
2. Okiya-san, graduate student. He wears glasses.
3. Makabe-san, a freelance worker. He's overweight.
None of the three have any types of color schemes in their names or are wearing yellow clothes. None of their occupations have to do with colors either. The Detective Boys then start to ponder what the colors could mean - flowers, perhaps? Genta then tells a pretty hilarious remark that there's one "black guy" and Haibara gets shocked at it (of course due to thinking of the Men in Black). Genta tells them that he's talking about the darker-skinned person, Hosoi-san, who even wears black clothes. Ayumi points out that if it was about black clothes all the others are also wearing some beneath their jackets.
Mitsuhiko wonders if the colors mentioned by Kaito in his journal actually mean the face color as the glasses person, Subaru Okiya, has a white-skinned face. Ayumi notes that the plump person has a blueish face rather than white. Inspector Yuminaga decides to do a more thorough investigation by asking the three suspects more questions, after all, the real question that needs to be answered is "which one of the three is the 'Yellow person'?"
The first one of the three suspects being re-interrogated by Inspector Yuminaga is the carpenter with a bandage, Hosoi Ryuhei (25 years old). Hosoi tells them that at the time the house was on fire last night he was drinking with his boss and some of the carpenter seniors. Yuminaga tells him that the police has called his colleagues and they said Hosoi had disappeared at 1 AM. Hosoi tells the inspector that as he hadn't been that drunk in a long time he got really wasted and went to the park to try and sober up but fell asleep on the bench. When he woke up it was morning. That would mean that there was no one with Hosoi around at 2 AM when the fire was set.
Conan appears and asks what's up with the band-aid on Hosoi Ryuhei's face. Hosoi is reluctant to answer to a child like Conan but Inspector Yuminaga tells him to just do it. Hosoi tells them that he'd hit himself with a square-shaped timber while he was working and that he's a novice carpenter who gets injured a lot. Hosoi even shows them his fingers which all but the ring finger have band-aids on due to the constant injuries he gets from work (Conan and the inspector are interested in the band-aid on his face obviously because it could have come from a fight as the Yellow Person was arguing with Kaito Sugiura's father at night). Lastly the inspector asks if Hosoi has a favourite color and he answers that because he likes to go surfing at the sea, his favourite color is blue.
The next one being questioned is the glasses man graduate student, Okiya Subaru (27). Subaru tells the officers that he was alone, driving during night when the apartment was burnt down. He's been working on his academic thesis and everytime he's gotten stuck, he's gone for a drive to get motivation. Okiya's car is in the parking lot not far away and he asks if Inspector Yuminaga wants to see the car but the inspector tells him that instead of seeing the car he'd rather know where Okiya drove to.
Subaru explains that he took a road filled with trees to the Teimuzu River as he wanted to see green scenery. He explains that he used to water the plants in the garden of the burnt-down apartment as well as the landlord didn't really do any work he perhaps should have. The inspector asks if Okiya's favourite color is green because he claims to find nature soothing to look at, but he tells the inspector that his favourite color would instead be... black. Black because
the darkness hides his psyche from the outside world, however he also dislikes the color for same reason. [I think that line is very interesting considering Subaru's character. It seems he's also a lot more emotional than people give him credit, I believe...]
The final suspect to be questioned is the part-time worker Makabe Ginya (29). Ginya's story goes that he was at a movie marathon in Haido during the night of the fire. It was an all-night triple feature of the
Gomera film series (note: Gomera is the
Detective Conan version of
Godzilla that's been in the series since the first volumes). Makabe explains that he went to the movies alone because one of his online friends who planned to go along with him had canceled the meeting. Inspector Yuminaga questions the identity of the "
online friend" and Makabe answers that he's an online friend he met via day trading stocks. However the trading is only a hobby of his as he doesn't really make any money off of it.
Inspector Yuminaga questions how Makabe makes his living (via what types of part-time jobs?). It seems that Makabe is registered with a temp agency for odd jobs. Conan grabs his hand and looks at his fingers, questioning whether Makabe does construction work as there's dirt under his fingers. Makabe tells him that the dirt just comes from playing with airsoft guns with his friend a few days prior. The "battlefield" they used was mountain filled territory and he was defeated so bad he had to throw his paint-filled clothes to the trash.
Conan asks if Makabe's favourite color is a camo color because he likes to play war games. Makabe tells him that he likes navy green the best.
That ends the questioning and Ryuhei Hosoi questions what the colors even have to do with the fire but Yuminaga doesn't care to answer the question. Haibara then goes to Mitsuhiko and whispers him a question. Mitsuhiko tells her that he can do whatever she asks. Haibara grabs him and tells him to take a few steps backwards and tries to turn but Haibara grabs his face and tells him not to look back and only move backwards while constantly looking at her. This makes Mitsuhiko blush but he agrees to do it.
As Mitsuhiko moves backwards Haibara looks at the three suspects. She believes completely that one of the three is a spy of the Black Organization and that she needs to figure out a way to find the spy's identity or the children (Detective Boys) are in danger. As she concentrates more on the suspects she starts to grab Mitsuhiko more powerfully which hurts him and while walking backwards Mitsuhiko slips and falls to the ground. Haibara tells him he's sorry and asks if Mitsuhiko is alright. Mitsuhiko tells her that he only scratched his elbow and, other than that, he's okay. Ryuhei Hosoi arrives to give him a bandage that he has stored because his boss always tells him to carry them because he gets damaged at work constantly.
Inspector Yuminaga wonders who the
Yellow Person could be and an officer arrives to ask him if Kaito's diary can really be deciphered at face value. For example the three people mentioned in the diary wouldn't necessarily be these three men. Kaito Sugiura, the hospitalized owner of the diary, is a child after all, so the three men mentioned in it might actually be his
imaginary friends. The detective boys tell the officer that there actually is a real person who's been doing suspicious acts at night time and Kaito's story didn't sound made-up in the slightest.
Conan tells everyone that if you were dealing with a child who'd committed a crime, as an officer you'd gather information by asking the adults around the child, and that works the other way around as well. Even if Kaito was a child, he made detailed observations about the residents and gave them all code names.
Subaru Okiya suddenly leans down-forwards at Conan and tells him "Copper beeches." Conan wonders what he's talking about and he explains that's what Sherlock Holmes said to his sidekick Watson in "
The Adventure of the Copper Beeches."
"
My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid?" Subaru tells Conan who gets surprised about him also being a fan of Sherlock Holmes. Subaru tells him that he had every volume of the Holmes series but they all burned in the fire (the entire apartment where the three suspects + the Sugiura family lived is entirely gone because of the flames). Inspector Yuminaga tells them that whatever Holmes would've thought about the situation, he's not going to ignore the diary (although that's not what Conan meant...) and he wonders if they could just ask Kaito about who the
Yellow Person is. One of the officers tells the inspector that he'd called the hospital not long ago and they'd said that the boy still hasn't regained consciousness.
Ayumi asks Yuminaga if she could see the diary and the inspector gives it to her as he asks another investigator if they found anything new in the ruins. The investigator tells him that at the site where Kaito's room used to be there were lots of toy cars. Even though there's nothing weird about finding toys in a child's room, the investigator is surprised because there were over 100. Yuminaga just tells the investigator that people seem to buy anything for their children nowadays. Maybe the landlord had collected the toy cars for some reason?
Ayumi notices something weird in Kaito's diary and Mitsuhiko goes to her. She thinks that the last line in the diary "
I'd better tell Conan about it tomorrow" is weird because it seems that Kaito had kept erasing and rewriting Conan's name in the diary.
Mitsuhiko looks at the erased parts and tells that it's not likely that he spelled Conan wrong and then erased the name because the original erased part is a completely different name. The original word seems to be something like "
Kuroshi." Conan wonders what that means and an investigator on the scene tells them that it probably means "
Kuroshiro-kun," that translates to "A black and white boy." Conan realizes the meaning behind the Colored names now.
Ayumi recalls back to a day prior when Kaito Sugiura actually did call Conan "Kuroshi," an odd nickname and the Detective Boys ponder that they would need to wait for Kaito to wake up in the hospital to learn what the reason behind calling Conan "Kuroshiro" is.
Conan tells rest of the Detective Boys that there's no need to wait for Kaito to wake up as the
Black and White boy is going to corner the Yellow Arsonist right there and then.
I'd say this investigation chapter was pretty decent. Gosho threw a nice characterization moment for both Conan and Subaru in the form of the Sherlock Holmes quote and mystery fiction in general as we know that Conan's apartment contains his father's (Yusaku) study room with multiple floors of nothing but mystery novels that Conan has always read, and now we learn of Subaru's detective fiction addiction as well. The method to find the hints for the colors was pretty neat, it feels very organic in this story. It's one of those cases where you'd have to either be knowledgeable of Japanese vocabulary or check the word up however.
Part 3 - The New Neighbor (File 624)
The chapter opens up with a neat cover page of Conan taking off a mask with both black and white sides. If you remember the earlier chapters, Conan is called "Kuroshiro-kun" by his classmate Kaito Sugiura. The word translates into Black and White boy, which is exactly what this cover represents - Conan takes off his own mask (a fan of the series would assume the mask to represent someone else as Gosho draws the volume covers with Conan dressing up as other people. This cover is actually the opposite however).
The three people that are being suspected to be the "Yellow Person" (a nickname by a boy named Kaito Sugiura) are
1. Hosoi-san, carpenter. He has a band-aid on his left cheek.
2. Okiya-san, graduate student. He wears glasses.
3. Makabe-san, a freelance worker. He's overweight.
The case continues with the three suspects wondering what the
Detective Boys (Conan, Haibara, Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta) and Inspector Yuminaga (the person leading the arsonist case) are talking about as the three heard them talk about "
A yellow guy" and "
A diary."
Inspector Yuminaga explains to the three suspects that the investigators found the diary that belongs to the landlord's (Mr. Sugiura, who is in hospital in critical condition at the moment) son's, Kaito Sugiura's, diary. The diary mentions someone called "Yellow Person." Inspector Yuminaga tells the three to forget about the diary though, as he believes that it has nothing to do with the case. Mitsuhiko tells him that it does have
everything to do with the case because Kaito had written in his diary that
The Yellow Person came home on the night of the fire and was fighting with my (Kaito's) father.
All three of the suspects in this case claimed that they were out all night and didn't get back to the apartment until morning. The apartment was set in fire at night and was completely burned down, almost killing the Sugiura family. The detective boys bring out the possibility that one of the three must be lying about being out all night because of Kaito's diary - the one who had returned must be the Yellow Person who fought with Kaito's father at night and must also be the person who set the apartment to flames. Kaito had mentioned that the Yellow Person has been doing shady things every night in his diary, so that might be the reason why Kaito's father fought with the culprit.
The three suspects tell the the detective boys that they know Kaito Sugiura but none of them remember him ever calling one of them Mr. Yellow. Subaru Okiya questions also what the "suspicious behavior" every night by the Yellow Person could mean but Inspector Yuminaga stops him and tells the suspects that the children must be just imagining things.
Inspector Yuminaga goes to the detective boys and whispers to them not to talk about the Yellow Person because if one of the three suspects is the arsonist, it would be a waste to reveal their card. Conan just tells them that it doesn't matter because it's already clear which of the three is the
Yellow Person.
The three suspects all act in pretty different ways but Subaru's statement
"This I've got to hear." (talking about Conan's deductive reasoning) is pretty funny to see while he smirks. Inspector Yuminaga questions Conan whether or not he's sure about figuring out the identity of the perp.
Conan explains that it took him a while to figure the suspect's identity out but Kaito's diary mentions
Mr. Red and Mr. White as well, not just
Mr. Yellow. Conan says that he figured the two out to find who the Yellow Person is.
Conan picks up Kaito's diary and reads one of the lines about the three colored people to explain the case.
"The weather's bad today. I have to hurry up and go to school, but Mr. Red can sleep in this time. Mr. Red got up every morning to do something, but he didn't have to do it on a day when it was raining."
Conan asks the Detective Boys who the Red Person could be based on the line. Mitsuhiko thinks of the person not being able to hang out laundry but that's not right. Haibara thinks of watering plants, which is true. Okiya Subaru did indeed mention that he even used to water the plants of the apartment. [This was foreshadowed pretty neatly. I completely missed it. It shows just how much substance Detective Conan has when Gosho manages to make little things like that matter.]
Inspector Yuminaga questions Conan about why Kaito Sugiura would call Subaru Mr. Red, then, as Subaru's face is rather white, not red. Conan reminds him of the toy cars that the investigators found [a more clear clue but still nothing I picked up], there were at least 100 of them in Kaito's burnt-down room. That means that he must love vehicles. To understand how Kaito chooses his color nicknames for other people, we must think of how a child thinks. When a child thinks of a red vehicle, he thinks of a fire trucks. Thus the reason behind Subaru Okiya being nicknamed the "Red Person/Mr. Red" is because Kaito often saw him watering the plants around the apartment with a hose; Subaru resembled a fire truck.
Then the next problem would be the identity of the White Person as there are many types of white cars. However, there is one car that's always white; Japanese ambulances. Conan explains that white is the color set for hospital vehicles by the road trucking vehicle act. Who could the White Person/'Ambulance' be, then? Ambulances carry hurt people and make people better, the detective boys ponder. Mitsuhiko realizes that the bandages that Mr. Hosoi always carries must mean that he's the White Person (despite Mr. Hosoi's face being dark-skinned). Mr. Hosoi gave Mitsuhiko a bandage when he fell after all and he's said that he always carries them because of his boss's orders (Hosoi gets hurt constantly at work). - This theory makes perfect sense because in Kaito's diary, the boy mentions that he'd tripped on the way home from school and "
was glad that Mr. White was there..."! [Great multilayered foreshadowing going on in this case.]
Okiya is exposed as Mr. Red, Hosoi is Mr. White, so that leaves only Mr. Yellow, the assumed culprit. Yellow vehicles include taxis, however there are white and green ones of those as well. Inspector Yuminaga thinks a bit until he realizes that Mr. Yellow must be named after construction vehicles. Those are painted bright yellow in order prevent accidents. Yuminaga gives bulldozers and excavators as an example. Conan tells that he's correct; Mr. Yellow is the person that's been digging in the dirt... the person with dirty nails,
Mr. Makabe... he's the one who set the building ablaze!
Makabe asks why he's being suspected because he'd already explained that the dirt under his fingers is from playing airsoft with a friend of his. Conan states that Makabe told them before that he also had to throw his clothes away because the paint wouldn't come off. Airsoft guns shoot small B.B. pellets. Makabe would only have paint on his clothes if he'd been using paintball guns. Both guns are used for mock combat but are from being the same types of guns. [This part also showcases that if you have knowledge of mock combat guns, you'd be able to suspect who the real culprit is.]
Inspector Yuminaga looks at Makabe in a somewhat comedic way, like, "so that's how it is.." but Makabe tries to slime his way out by saying he just used the word "airsoft" so that the children would understand easier what he meant (rather than saying B.B.'s), and he claims that he really was playing paintball. Conan says that he'd once seen on TV that paintball pellets are actually made of water-soluble paint that washes out of clothes. [This was actually something I'd been thinking as well, why wouldn't they use water-soluble paint!]
Conan corners Makabe with his deductive reasoning. Inspector Yuminaga doesn't seem too surprised about Makabe being the culprit. Conan then explains that Makabe had claimed that his "
favourite camoflage color is navy green" when he was asked what his favourite color was. The problem with Makabe's answer is that the only color with the word "
Navy" in it is
Navy Blue color, which is the color of the uniforms of the U.S. army! On the other hand the green color used for camouflage is called
Olive Drab. [This once again proves that if one has knowledge of these colors or looked them up, they'd instantly suspect Makabe's statement].
Inspector Yuminaga tells Makabe that he's actually probably never even played combat games despite claiming so. Makabe tells him that he's actually only recently started playing so that's why he doesn't know of the correct terminologies.
Conan tells everyone that he bets everything will become clear once the investigators check out the garden of the apartment (we see Makabe thinking to himself '
No!' when Conan says this). Kaito Sugiura had mentioned that Mr. Yellow had been doing something suspicious at night, and because Makabe lied about the reason he has dirt under his nails (he claimed that it's from paintball when it's really from being the 'Yellow Person' who digs the dirt), the chances are that Makabe has been digging in the garden of the apartment.
Conan smirks and tells everyone that if they investigate the garden they will most likely find something buried there that Makabe doesn't want anyone else to see... for example the cash Makabe had accumulated from his
"day trading hobby." Makabe finally succumbs and tells everyone that he's hidden two suitcases in the garden, both filled with around 200 000 000 yen (which is about $2 million). The officers wonder where the hell Makabe had managed to come up with that amount of money and Makabe tells them that it's just like Conan said, from the day trading. Makabe had managed to come up with a system that worked to get a lot of money. He didn't want to pay the taxes and wanted to keep every penny to himself so every time he made a million yen, he'd always bury it in the garden.
But in the friday-saturday night when Makabe had come home from the movies (
Gomera films), the landlord (Kaito Sugiura's father) was waiting outside of his room with one of the suitcases filled with money, shouting about wanting to know where he got the money. Makabe got upset about being found out and shoved Kaito's father down the stairs. He didn't get up after falling. Makabe started to panic, set the apartment to flames and ran away for the night. He thought that after the fire he would be able to
'reset' everything. He buried the suitcase back in the garden and was going to dig the money up once everything calmed down.
Inspector Yuminaga grabs Makabe and starts shouting at him, "
Reset? You don't get it, do you? This isn't a video game you can push a button on! You put human lives in danger and destroyed decades of experiences and memories in a single night!
You don't get to reset a single thing. The game of your life isn't over yet. Get ready, because you're gonna make amends to everyone you hurt! Especially the innocent family you dragged into this!" [This moment from Inspector Yuminaga was great.]
One of the investigators that's been hanging around comes back and says that the
Baker General Hospital had called. The landlord's operation was a success and Kaito Sugiura's regained consciousness as well. Everyone gets happy and Yuminaga tells Makabe that he can use the dough he made gambling with stocks to build the Sugiura's a new apartment.
The Detective Boys then bring the supposedly last mystery of the case that still needs answering - why did Kaito give Conan the nickname Black and White boy if they can't think of any cars that are always black and white? Inspector Yuminaga smirks and tells the children that he can think of a car - the police car. Yuminaga tells everyone that it's the perfect nickname for the kid who out-sleuthed the police.
The case has finally reached its end. The detective boys think that they should head to the hospital to visit Kaito. Genta tells the rest that because the hospital is rather far away they should go to Doc. Agasa so that he could drive them there. Subaru Okiya wonders what the children are talking about and asks them if they know someone who's a doctor. They answer yes, a guy who likes to make video games and other garbage but he told the detective boys that his doctorate is in engineering. Subaru tells the children about how coincidental that is as he's studying for a doctorate in engineering himself and then he asks if this doctor (Agasa) lives nearby, and if he does, he'd like to meet this doctor. The detective boys tell him that they can introduce Professor Agasa to him right away. Subaru is happy about that, saying "
wonderful..." as Haibara looks at him with suspicious eyes while hiding behind Conan.
At Professor Agasa's house. The detective boys have introduced Subaru, a student with a grad in engineering, to Doc. Hiroshi Agasa. Agasa jokes about how Subaru must be his future business rival but Subaru just tells him that he simply enjoys studying the subject only. Subaru then looks around Agasa's house (it's impressively big) and Agasa tells him that the building is too large for just him and Haibara (as she lives with Agasa). Subaru asks if Agasa would care to take him to live in the large apartment as well since his current home has burnt down. Subaru offers to work as Agasa's research assistant in return for letting him live there, and Agasa agrees... however Haibara does not. She just shakes her head while very tense.
Conan asks Subaru if he wanted to live at "Shinichi's place" instead, if Agasa can't take him in. Conan explains to him how Shinichi Kudo is a teenager and his parents have been gone for a while. The Kudo residence is the house right next door to Doc. Agasa's as well and Conan even has the key. Subaru ponders about it as the detective boys arrive to ask what's taking COnan so long because they're supposed to head for the hospital to meet Kaito. Subaru wonders if staying at the
Kudo residence is alright and if the family won't mind, but Conan assures him that it's alright to go live there.
Behind Conan's back Haibara whispers to him if it's actually alright to let Subaru Okiya live in the Kudo residence because the
Syndicate (Black Organization) thinks that Shinichi Kudo is dead. Haibara brings her worry (that she's been worried about for a while now) that if Subaru is actually one of the organization members, if he finds evidence that Shinichi Kudo is still alive and kicking... things could turn bad.
Conan smiles happily and tells Haibara not to worry, after all
"no one who likes Sherlock Holmes could be a bad person!" Haibara just looks at Conan's reasoning dumbfounded. Conan then gives the Kudo residence key to Subaru as well as saying that he's going to email Shinichi about letting Subaru live in the Kudo residence. Conan then smirks and tells him "
please take care of the house while he's away." Subaru naturally agrees to his request and the chapter finally ends.
Brah. This ending chapter for the case was pretty insane structurally. The story superficially hides everything that the case stands out for. It's something that oozes substance and multilayered writing. There were some of that in the first chapter of the case but now when all the build up comes to a close... I'm actually really amazed by this particular story. The case continues from the previous chapter where Conan figured out how Kaito Sugiura chooses the nicknames for the characters, then we go through a ton of different style of clues and hints used in this short story to come to a natural conclusion of the culprit's identity that doesn't leave much room for doubt. What's the most surprising about this all is how much there was that I missed. The chapter has an epilogue where Subaru visits Professor Agasa, asking if he could live there as his old house burnt down in this case, but because Haibara won't allow that to happen, Conan decided to offer Subaru to live in the Kudo residence instead right next door to Agasa's, and he even gave the apartment key to Subaru already.
This case was a lot better than I expected. I'm right now on a journey to do overviews and reviews of the three cases where the three Bourbon suspects (Subaru, Masumi and Amuro) are revealed in. I finished reading Amuro's introduction (File 793-795) before this and at the moment I can say that this case (Subaru's introduction) I prefer more because of the amount of substance everything has in this short story (regarding the overarching story and this case), however Amuro's introduction has a great ending twist and melancholic feel to balance it out more and make the case memorable.
I wanted to get back to Kindaichi Case Files (got kinda bored of the long cases and headed to re-read these short stories instead for a change) but I really want to read the final Bourbon Suspect case now, which is Masumi's introductory short-story...!
BOURBON SUSPECT INTRODUCTORY CASES
