Where do you think the plot is going?

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

Right now we have Sera's intelligent second-oldest brother doing something, and Bourbon who appears to be closing in on Conan and Haibara's identities with every appearance. Chapter 900, is 34 chapters, or 10 cases not counting long ones away. The twentieth anniversary is even sooner. Something not-insignificant probably will happen relatively soon.

Where do you think Gosho is going to take this plot?

Will Amuro get killed for knowing too much? Defect? Discover Akai and force Kir out of the Organization?
How will Conan force Amuro out before he knows too much? Will he have to trick him, desperate revival style?
What will happen if someone brings up Shinichi being alive in front of Amuro?
Will Sera's second brother be good or evil? What has he been doing? Who is he and how does he know Conan?
Will Sherry be rediscovered to be alive? If so, how will it happen?
What magical event happened at the place that sounds like waves where Sera met Shinichi and Ran in the past? How will it link back to present events?
Will some more info about the boss come out?
Something else I have forgotten?

[dcfan01]

I'll just post what i'm thinking, since I don't really have any new theory in mind:
Amuro is getting too close to conan and his inner-circle, and conan isn't doing anything to prevent it..
Not just that, but he seems to be losing his edge (the anonymity that would allow a very effective surprise attack)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember seeing conan in a case where he didn't have the upper hand (except with yusaku maybe)..
Also, he is in constant danger:
If Ran mentioned Shinichi in front of amuro, he would most likely realize the thruth in no time
If Amuro ran into the DB with Haibara.. he would most likely figure out who she is.. (It is not clear to me what happend on ch852)
Anyway, Conan always seems to have something in mind that justifies his actions.. for that reason, I re-read all the chapters where bourbon was involved, but I couldn't find anything.. Something did catch my attention though:

-Boubon is very interested in everything that is mentioned about Agasa (ch798p4, ch804p10, ch815p5, ch843p16) though once again, I dont really understand what happened on ch852..
Amuro knew Elena and Atsushi Miyano, and Atsushi met Agasa (at least) once. This kind of plot would bring the Silver Bullet investigation, Haibara's past and Vermouth's issues back on prime time..

Connect that with the phrase of bourbon about Vermouth's determination to end Shiho's life no matter what it takes (ch824p8)
and Yukiko's implications that Vermouth was hiding the effects of APTX from the BO on pourpose (same case)..
And Itakura Suguru and you might be onto something..
But in any case, this kind of development is very unlikely way into the future..

[PhantomWriter]

Yes, Conan is getting... sloppy. The anonymity for surprise attacks you mentioned, dcfan01, is quickly being lost. He's raising too many eyebrows, making too many people notice that he's not just a normal little kid...

On top of that, there's foreshadowing of a Ran suspicion arc. Already I am having trouble believing that Ran has not once mentioned Shinichi in front of Amuro. Everything will likely be going to hell in a handbasket, to put it bluntly enough. To have Conan somehow still come out on top without disrupting the status quo would break my willing suspension of disbelief, because he's got almost nothing right now.:

Shuichi's in hiding.
Haibara has to be exceedingly careful in going out to avoid Bourbon.
Kir is undercover and their only known inside person, so she can't break cover and lose access to that source of information.
Ran is suspicious, which is especially bad when there's a Black Org. agent working with your dad and your "not a boyfriend" is trying to hide from said agent.
Nobody knows what is going on with Sera.
KID's pissed off about that Mystery Train mess where he was treated like live bait.
Heiji coming over would end badly. ("Hey, Kudou!")
Yukiko and Yuusaku are usually in another country. Also, with how they're blood relations of Shinichi, that possible reminder of there being someone named Kudou is dangerous.
I'm not sure about how Jodie getting involved more would end.
Camel and James aren't quite reliable in some regards.
Eisuke has been put on a bus to America.

If Amuro checks with Vodka, then he's going to get some very interesting information on a one Shinichi Kudou if he ever gets any reason to wonder about who Shinichi Kudou is. Same goes for if he catches wind of the diplomat murder case, the Desperate Revival case, the Shiragami case, and how one Shinichi Kudou got tickets to go to London, all of these happening after his supposed death. The combination of "gave him the poison" and "he's not dead" could allow Amuro to deduce what happened.

On top of it, Conan and Shinichi are very similar physically and Conan looks like seven year old Shinichi (as that is who he is). If Amuro at any point looks at the photo albums in the Mouri place, he may come across some pictures.

Amuro has Conan trapped. He's left so much evidence that Amuro barely has to dig to figure out what's going on. Conan also didn't try cutting as many ties as possible to his old life, which is dangerous (like that damning photo album at the detective agency). Amuro is not an imposing physical threat, nor prone to shooting first and asking questions later. He's cunning and manages not to be enough of an immediate threat which means that Conan drops his guard.

Basically, either Amuro's going to be soon offed/put on a bus, the status quo will have to change drastically, or Conan and his allies will manage to pull something out of thin air to avoid the consequences of all of these things.

But, with the other points, I really am not sure about this second brother... I have the feeling it's Subaru and Sera's using a half-truth to avoid revealing that Shuichi's alive. This whole thing came out of left field. Or Gosho is trolling again. If the second brother is another character, I am under the impression he's not going to be Black Org. unless the twist is that Amuro is the second brother. (Which would incidentally mean Subaru/Shuichi is lying about his age.)

[Shinichi Edogawa]

Amuro is going to be a vermouth 2.0, he will discover the truth and for the promise he made with vermouth, he will hide the truth to the Org.

The mysterious brother of sera is surely in the good side, gosho just find a new way to extend the bourbon arc.

[k11chi]

calling it

It's related to Taii the calico cat. There are still good deal of more chapters left for like 1 or 2 more Amuro cases, the connection will become more clear

[Divin]

Will Amuro get killed for knowing too much? Defect? Discover Akai and force Kir out of the organization?

I can't see Kir losing her place within the BO, because up to this point her intel was (as far as we know) pretty much non-existent. The only information we saw her give to the FBI is that Bourbon entered the game, which was by itself a big deal, but I think it would somehow feel wrong if that was all she could discover. Furthermore: if she would be forced out she would be forced out in a lethal manner and her role is not played out (IMO at least).
On the other hand since they are obviously not sure that Akai is dead, she probably isn't getting any information at the moment.
And this just crossed my mind: Bourbon might have been a leak intended by the BO.

Considering this Amuro either won't discover Akai, which at this point in Amuros investigations will require an extraordinary maneuver by Conan and Akai, or he won't disclose the information about Akai by choice or the lack of opportunity to do so due to not being alive.

I can't really see him opting for defection, because his hate of Akai is rather well established, although as far as I know the reason for hating him is still subject to speculation.
And there don't come any reasons for defection to mind... he doesn't have any relations (yet) with one on Conan's side that would justify a defection (unless you buy into the Amuro-is-the-second-brother-theory)
Well... there is the promise he made to Vermouth, but we have no clue whatsoever what it entailed and I can't see him agreeing to terms that would put Vermouth over the BO

My reasoning leaves me only with him getting killed, which is a problematic assumption itself due to the lack of possible killers. Personally I only see five people and for each of them a strong counter argument can be made...

Kir – I believe she is willing to kill to assure her place as a NOC in the BO, but actually killing him would endanger exactly this position...
Akai – we don't actually know how his moral compass works, but of all the FBI agents we have seen so far, I consider him the only one going down that road; however this has not been established and he would endanger his disguise by doing so... hence, unlikely
Vermouth – she obviously is determined to not let anybody know about the side effects of APTX (as seen in the Bell Tree Express) and Bourbon seems close to figuring out Conan's (and by extension Haibara's) secret; there we have a motive and a ruthless perpetrator, but killing another BO-agent would change the dynamics drastically (which I personally would welcome) and is problematic for obvious reasons
Haibara – I guess many who will read this will think that at this point I have lost it, but to me someone who is willing to sacrifice herself to save her friends, would also kill to achieve the same goal (if there are no other options available); of course she has changed since she worked for the BO and I guess even then she wasn't entirely comfortable with killing (although I guess she prefered it over dying) and she is strongly influenced by the no-kill Kudo, but for me the only real reason that won't happen is that given her condition and circumstances she won't ever get the chance to kill Bourbon
Gin – only one I can come up with who can kill Bourbon without endangering the status quo; but how we get from where we are to Gin having a reason to kill Bourbon (without the aforementioned unlikely defection) is beyond me

Thinking about how many reasons there are against all these scenarios, made me really excited about the resolution!

How will Conan force Amuro out before he knows too much? Will he have to trick him, desperate revival style?

I get the feeling Amuro already knows (or at least suspects) too much... but then again I probably assume too much on this front, since I tend to fill in the blanks, Gosho intentionally leaves, with knowledge of my own (I hope I am not the only one doing that).

The blanks that struck me:
We didn't get to see Vermouth's reaction to Bourbon refering to Conan as a 'terrifying man'... for me that is the most interesting one since Vermouth can't be too happy that Bourbon is doubting Conan's youthful exterior
We didn't see when Amuro started listening to Conan calling Haibara and we didn't see whether or not Conan adressed her at any point by her name... nevertheless: assuming he heard the comment about 'the certain smell' (otherwise it would be pointless to have him there because after that there is no valuable information to be gained on Conan's end of the conversation), the only conclusion (IMO) to be drawn there is that Conan called either Akai or Sherry... [counter arguments welcome!]

What will happen if someone brings up Shinichi being alive in front of Amuro?

Let's change this to... WHEN someone brings up Shinichi being alive in front of Amuro... I mean the number of imbeciles around who only wait to slip up on that account is way to high that this wouldn't happen.

Ran (and Sonoko) – who weren't able to conceal Shinichi's identity from Okiya despite being explicitely asked
Heiji – who barges into the detective agency calling 'Kudo' without first checking who is present; i doubt Amuro would fall for the 'kudoi'-bit he puts on every now and then
Kazuha – who has nothing better to discuss with Ran as her relationship with Kudo
Sera – who was complicit in telling Okiya, although I think she is the most reasonable in that regard
Agasa and Haibara – who never came around to calling Conan by his fake name despite being bugged on numerous occasions and who will most likely be bugged again really soon

To sum it up: just a matter of time!
Assuming that it will take Amuro about half a day to reach the inevitable conclusion that Conan=Kudo, I seriously hope Conan has come up with a contingency plan for that scenario, but I doubt it will be desperate revival style, since that would inform the BO that Shinichi is in fact alive, putting everyone in danger Conan cares about.
We can only hope, that the promise Bourbon made to Vermouth actually prevents him from sharing this intel. I say hope, because I highly doubt it!

Will Sera's second brother be good or evil? What has he been doing? Who is he and how does he know Conan?

At this point in the story evil is probably a synonym for being in the BO and that I doubt... more a gut feeling than anything else.

The who-question is the most compelling one and when this is answered his past and relation to Conan will fall right into place.

And I think this question deserves its own thread.


Questions, Chekhov might have forgotten:

Will Jodie and the FBI figure out, that Akai is still alive? If yes, will they do so before Bourbon? If yes, will they be capable of keeping it a secret?
(I personally liked that Jodie was actually onto something in her last appearance, connecting dots. I mean, she has gotten pretty incapable of late and despite not being back to her former self – all this babbling about undercover investigations and operations in front of a civilian, as far as she was concerned, made me cringe- it was a step in the right direction. She was one of my favourites in the Vermouth-arc and it went steeply downhill from there.)

Will Sera discover Akai?

Will Ran figure out, that Conan is Shinichi? (Probably not, but a suspicion arc is coming.)

And by the way... you showered us with questions, Chekhov, but didn't grace us with your predictions! Are you waiting for a certain number of people to share their ideas, hopes and dreams , before you give us insight in Gosho's notebook?

[Tenryu]

Something else I have forgotten?

- Amuro and Wataru Date connection. Probably if there's any reason why he will go to the "good side" is because this connection
- Will Gosho finally break the status quo?

Heiji coming over would end badly. ("Hey, Kudou!")

I won't mind if Gosho makes a comedy chapter as a filler once in a while with something like this and then it ended up as a nightmare for Conan... It will be funny

[Kudo Shinchi]

I think Amuro is going to discover Conan's identity before ch. 900. What he will do once he does is the mystery. Personally, I think its likely he's going to get killed. Unlike Vermouth he's loyal to the BO, so I don't see him keeping Conan's identity a secret. Vermouth might force him to, but honestly, if he discovers Conan's identity only to never reveal it to the BO, thus not pushing the plot forward and endangering Conan in any way, what would have been the point of Bourbon at all? The reason this arc is so fascinating and Bourbon is such a terrifying foe is because this is the first time in DC's entire run that he's had a BO member this close to him on a daily basis. Even worse is that this particular BO member seems to be basically on Conan's level in terms of deduction (as shown many times to us; as Scar Akai he solved the Beika mall case despite lacking many of the clues Conan had, and solved the case during Nocturne and MT with relative ease.) Amuro is a real threat, especially because he's loyal to the BO. If his arc ends and Conan is totally fine, what was the point? Gosho has a great opportunity here to completely change the story and prepare for a final arc after this one. Even if Bourbon ends up dying, there should be consequences.

Amuro is already suspecting Conan. He already suspects him of being behind Sleeping Kogoro despite seeing Sleeping Kogoro only once. He also already knows Conan has been working with the FBI. He knows where Professor Agasa's house is, which is where Haibara's current shelter is. We have seen that Amuro is powerful both mentally and physically, and can disguise as anybody whenever he pleases since Vermouth can help him out. From the conversation he recorded between Jodie and Conan at the shrine he can figure out how Akai faked his death. Long story short, Bourbon has all the cards he needs to discover Conan's true identity, to discover Shiho's alive, to discover how Akai faked his death. With Conan becoming increasingly paranoid and losing his cool, the situation is really bad.

[Olly]

IMO it's only a matter of when, not if, Bourbon will find Conan's identity. He already knows Conan is the real brains behind Sleeping Kogoro and that he's helped the FBI. Once he hears about Shinichi from Kogoro/Ran/Sonoko and sees a picture of him, then Bourbon will find his identity fairly quickly. I think Vermouth realized this and the promise was most likely about keeping his identity as a secret. We know from Gin that he's a furtive type like Vermouth and her lack of reaction when Bourbon said Conan was "a terrifying man" shows that she expected this IMO.

Sera and her second brother are more mysterious. When did she meet Ran and Conan (or Shinichi) before? Does she know Conan's identity? If so, how? I've no clue who her second brother is, and how he knows Conan.

[TML]

I agree that Bourbon has the potential to find out the true identities of Conan and/or Ai. The only thing that would concern me is this: upon finding out, who will he report his discoveries to? Could Gin be among the recipients of Bourbon's reports?

[Shinichi Edogawa]

I think that the second brother is Komei or Shuukichi Haneda because there are physical resemblances between them.

[Divin]

I think that the second brother is Komei or Shuukichi Haneda because there are physical resemblances between them.

Physical resemblance shouldn't be a factor in guessing her brother, since she specifically that he doesn't look like her.
Akai and her resemble the mother, and TBD resembles the father.

Nevertheless they are still both candidates for the spot, since they are both very intelligent and have both made notice of how smart Conan is during their introductory cases.

[Elixir]

From what I understood in the Mystery Train Arc, Yukiko said that Conan knows Vermouth's weakness, that she hides the deaging of the two, especially Shiho, from the BO, to the extent of killing her. Vermouth, for sure is hiding something that she doesn't want the BO to know, and it is related to this deaging thing.

What would happen if Amuro knows the truth? Might as well keep it, or get death threats from Vermouth. It could be the reason why Conan is quite complacent nowadays.

But I want to see the possible clash between Vermouth and Bourbon. BO against BO. Yay!

Spoiler: side comment

I did some backreading after finishing my post. It seems that many also thought of the idea that Vermouth may interfer with Bourbon's discovery and may kill him. I thought of not posting this anymore but I guess, posting this shows my support in your theory. ^^

[Vinnie]

All I can think is : What's vermouth secret? Why does Vermouth protects Conan, and if she knows the real identity of Ai Haibara (Sherry/Shiho), why she's hiding that?
She knows that she didn't killed haibara, even though, she didn't said anything to Gin. And why Sera's brother know about Conan? Maybe he's an acquaintance of Conan? Maybe Conan solved a case when they met. ahhh.
I hope that he's a good person! Talking about Amuro/Bourbon, he is still "helping" Vermouth, BUT, I do think that he doesn't know that Ai/Shiho is alive, and she and conan had shrunked. But, he'll find that, soon! If he founds out, what's gonna happen?

[dcfan01]

About Bourbon and Akai's death:

Spoiler: My hate for Jodie

I think that Bourbon WILL find out the truth about Akai..
I wasn't sure at first, because neither conan nor akai would be stupid enough as to blow their covers (they are perfect beings after all).. but now that Jodie knows (or at least she is in the right track) I can say I'm sure that Boubon will find out..
She is the person that Gosho uses to demonstrate the intelligence of the other characters..
"She is an FBI star investigator, more intelligent that the average person, yet this character managed to fool her"
The problem is when the list of characters never stops increasing, to the point where every major character tricked her in some way..

HOWEVER (and this is the real point of this post), I don't think that Amuro will die/be killed, since he has gotten close to Ran, Kogoro, and the DB.
I think that never before has a character THAT close to them been killed..
Conan can try to hide it, but at some point there will be police involvement, and they will recognize the body, and more likely tell Kogoro later.. and we know he would care, and would try to investigate his death, and no matter how incompetent he might be, he will more likely get to something (he knows suicide is off the table, and conan wouldn't let someone else take the blame)..

Now, borrowing Divin's reasoning:

Amuro either won't discover Akai, which at this point in Amuros investigations will require an extraordinary maneuver by Conan and Akai, or he won't disclose the information about Akai by choice or the lack of opportunity to do so due to not being alive.

All we have left is defection (either he turns good, or he was good from the start, and had his own motives for being a BO agent).. but I think this development would give conan A LOT of infornation, which is very unlikely.. that's why there's always secret option "C": Vermouth has somenthing on him, something that would get him killed, and he HAS to obey her and honour their deal (whatever it was).