Water Demon Drowning Case (719-721?): Vote for the culprit!

[Nanatsu no Ko]

Tatsuhiko survived the river but was taken in by the BO where they have been experimenting on him for the last 11 years. Now he is in the same predicament as Conan (stuck in the body of his younger self) and decided to get revenge on his father (his father was the original Kappa). The evidence is obvious: Tatsuhiko's father was holding the murderer's (other) shoe.

[Chekhov MacGuffin]

Tatsuhiko survived the river but was taken in by the BO where they have been experimenting on him for the last 11 years. Now he is in the same predicament as Conan (stuck in the body of his younger self) and decided to get revenge on his father (his father was the original Kappa). The evidence is obvious: Tatsuhiko's father was holding the murderer's (other) shoe.

I should have added him as a option. I forgot the "someone else: explain" one this time. I wonder if this one will be a six-parter or a three...

[sstimson]

I know it looks like murder by drowning. But all we know is the body is soaking wet. I believe the "Kappa' that Ran saw was really the victim. But I need to know if it is possible for the Victim to be alive when Ran saw him, Killed shortly afterwords, and still brought back to the Attic before Ran and company arrive. It the cause was drowning was the cause of death, then how did the murderer get back before Ran did?
This case seems to have a "Time' factor to it.

[GinRei]

Well, Ran sees the kappa during the night.  They don't discuss it and find the body until breakfast the next morning.  Pending a specific time of death being given later, there's easily time for some shenanigans to occur.

[bankterminator]

What is writting behind the shoe in the last picture? Because it's not  written the same as the son's name that Ran mentioned before.

[Abs.]

What is writting behind the shoe in the last picture? Because it's not  written the same as the son's name that Ran mentioned before.

It is the child's name that is written on the shoe.  You are probably thinking of "Tatezato Mika" ==> "Kappa" which was the supposed name of the sender of the letter.

[mangaluva]

I voted for the road pizza for no real reason. Just that he seems to have gone out of his way to find outsiders. Maybe as witnesses or something. I could be talking BS.

Maybe the kappa was the dead guy. He was digging around in his son's grave and the teacher got pissed off and attacked him, thinking he was a thief, then freaked when he saw it was the dad he freaked and decided to blame it on the Kappa.

Or it was Gin.

[caribou]

The 'kappa' that Ran saw could be the murderer who was digging for the shoe to 'complete' his murder setup, but Gosho actually showed the outline of his face which is different from the usual generic black figure so I'm not sure if he's the culprit. I thought he could also be Yamamura, who possibly got intrigued when Kogoro asked him about any murders 11 years ago. While looking it up he would have found records of the child's death so he might have decided to do some poking around...

If the father was dressing up as a kappa and his son went hunting for it, and that was why he died, I guess that makes some sense as to why the teacher/classmate might get revenge. but my guess is:

- father was making his son dress up as the kappa. someone (one of the suspects?) saw the 'kappa' at the river, got frightened, bashes 'it' with a rock. realises that it is a person and was horrified. the father saw the whole thing from his ryoukan, came to some agreement that he would not press charges if the culprit agrees not to expose the kappa as a fake only to promote the ryoukan. so they took off the kappa costume and let the body be swept down the river.

- eventually the father resorted to blackmail of some sort, out of desperation because his ryoukan was not doing well? and the culprit decides to kill him. (I'm not sure about this part...)

I agree we have to pay close attention to the things inside the bags. but I have no idea how they could be related to the case. possibly the pillow, as Abs pointed out which can be filled with air/liquid, so it could be used to contain the river water to aid the murder?

I'm confused by the letter too. why would the culprit (of either the son's or the father's murder) send a letter inviting Mouri Kogoro to investigate? the sender must be someone else..could be the afro guy (who seemed to be the only one convinced that it was a murder not accident)?

[karisama]

What bothers me is that Ran blushed when Kogoro said "Weren't you happy about staying in a Ryokan?"
It's natural for her to be worried when her father is meeting up with a convicted murderer but the blushing doesn't make sense..

Why is Ran placing a plate on top of Conan's head in the cover? o_o

[karisama]

The water is shallow so he wouldn't have to submerge himself at all to undo it.

But wouldn't it be deep for a kid? It was the artist guy or the classmate who said that it was shallow.

Whoever was dressed as the kappa could not have predicted that Kogoro and Ran would show up then. Whatever the kappa had intended to do at the river, he meant to do it in private. Kogoro drove to the gravesite. Although it is within line of sight of the small window in the attic of the Ryokan, a car is still probably the fastest way to get there so none of the suspects could have beat the Mouris to the gravesite. 

You mean the altar, right? It was stated that the actual grave was somewhere else.
Another thing that bothers me is that Tokubi said they wanted to visit a gravesite but they visited the altar. Or maybe the altar and the grave are located close together. Or they visited the gravesite as well but Gosho didn't show it.

    One idea is that one of the suspects knew that Ran had left her phone and was waiting for them to come while dressed as a kappa; however I don't think this is what happened. None of the suspects could have ensured Ran would forget anything in the first place. It might be possible the kappa took advantage of the stray cell phone. Tokubi Rokurou and Araiwa Kazuki probably didn't notice she had it out since they were busy balancing on the stones and when Ran set it down were busy getting themselves out of the river. They probably didn't know about it. It might be possible that Nohira Bousuke or Numayama Banzou saw her set it down from the ryokan, but how could they be sure when she remembers it and if she would get it that night or tomorrow morning? In conclusion, I don't think the kappa guy intended for anyone to be around.

It's possible that the suspects heard Ran telling Kogorou that she'd left her cellphone. If that was true, why was the Kappa guy around anyway?

I found it strange that no one questioned why Kogoro would think the drowning case was a murder, how Kogoro knew about the incident, or what was his relationship with the drowned child Numayama Tatsuhiko.

The Nohira guy said that a lot of people started visiting the inn when the kappa rumour started flowing around. They must've assumed that Kogoro wanted to do some poking around? Not sure, though.

Tokubi could have intended to get a ride in detective Mouri's car in order to do something, like ensure Kogoro visited the supposed location of the drowning. The letter to Kogoro specified that he wished to meet in the early morning. I'm going to guess Kuchibashi Village is small so there would be few people traveling inbound early in the morning. Nohira Bousuke specifically mentioned almost no one comes to the ryokan these days. Therefore, Tokubi wouldn't accidentally pick the wrong car. His... extreme... method of signaling that he wants a ride would be to ensure he gets picked up.

Hmm..based on what you said it's possible that Tokubi himself sent the letter--he was expecting Kogoro to turn up.

[Misztina]

Why is Ran placing a plate on top of Conan's head in the cover? o_o

It's a kappa-thing. Kappa's have sort a of a "plate" on their head which contains water, which is the source of their power. If I'm not mistaking.

[Abs.]

The water is shallow so he wouldn't have to submerge himself at all to undo it.

But wouldn't it be deep for a kid? It was the artist guy or the classmate who said that it was shallow.

At the time of the incident, it should have been much deeper due to the rain.

You mean the altar, right? It was stated that the actual grave was somewhere else.
Another thing that bothers me is that Tokubi said they wanted to visit a gravesite but they visited the altar. Or maybe the altar and the grave are located close together. Or they visited the gravesite as well but Gosho didn't show it.

Well.  It's meant to be understood that when the teacher said "visiting a grave" he was actually referring to the poo-looking construct that the dead kid's classmates made.  What could be seen as odd is that while the classmate had said that he'd already been to the real grave, the teacher didn't seem particularly interested in visiting that one...

The Nohira guy said that a lot of people started visiting the inn when the kappa rumour started flowing around. They must've assumed that Kogoro wanted to do some poking around? Not sure, though.

Nope, the scary hair guy was referring to 12-13 years ago.

[mangaluva]

Why is Ran placing a plate on top of Conan's head in the cover? o_o

It's a kappa-thing. Kappa's have sort a of a "plate" on their head which contains water, which is the source of their power. If I'm not mistaking.

Yeah. You're supposed to make them bow to make the water flow out and drain them of their power so that they won't eat you.

[baka1412]

720 translation is up..

And we got more closer look into all the suspect belonging, in which could be used to transport the water used to drown the victim..

[Abs.]

THE JIG IS UP GUYS!!!!  KOGOROU HASN'T YELLED AT OR HIT CONAN YET!!!!  IN FACT HE JUST GOES "I SEE"


KOGOROU = BOURBON
KOGOROU = B.O. BOSS
KOGOROU = SAILOR MOON
KOGOROU = INUYASHA
KOGOROU = GANDHI