MeiTanteixX

"Kuroda Hyoue = Akai Tsutomu" Theory (Updated to File 1102) This is my current speculation on Kuroda Hyoue's identity, I will keep it updated as we get new developments. I think that Kuroda Hyoue is indeed Akai Tsutomu's current identity. Kuroda shares many similarities with Akai Tsutomu and especially his son (Akai Shuuichi). They both have similar fashion sense, with a contrasting white-coloured tie to a dark shirt and a brown overlay, and when it comes to Shuuichi, we got visual cues where they not only stood the same way with hands in their pocket, but also demonstrated the same leg sweep technique (File 989 & 1016), which is most likely intended to indicate that they share the same martial arts (Jeet Kune Do) that Akai Tsutomu was revealed to have mastered (File 1099 & SDB 90+). Kuroda was also especially interested in the Kohji case, to the point of seemingly noticing a dying message-like name in the news (File 980 & 987). This fits with Akai Tsutomu's interest, that started after Haneda Kohji's father (Haneda Yasuharu), who is Tsutomu's friend, requested that he solved his son's murder (File 1037). Here is how I currently suspect he turned from a seemingly deceased MI6 agent from Britain to a member of the NPA's Public Security in Japan in the last 17 years. We know from File 1048-1049 that Tsutomu had a confrontation with Vermouth 17 years ago after his investigation on the Kohji case, and that clash lead to him being presumed dead by the BO. We then learned in File 1099 that Wakasa and a "monster" (Rum) was involved in what potentially was that same incident that lead to his presumed death 17 years ago. As I speculated before, I think that Tsutomu's investigation lead him to finding out that Kohji's dying message revealed "Karasuma" to be the culprit, and that the prime suspect Asaka is innocent. I think that Rum found out about Tsutomu's investigation and baited him to a location using Vermouth, who disguised as "the innocent bodyguard Asaka" and carried Kohji's shogi piece charm as proof to convince him. Before going to the meeting location, Tsutomu warned his family about making enemies with bad people and told them to move to Japan, so that his family's whereabouts aren't discovered (File 972), in case he doesn't survive the planned meeting with "Asaka" (similar to Mary's contingency plan of having Masumi contact MI6 about fake Tsutomu in case Mary didn't make it back in File 1049). That lead to Tsutomu finger jabbing Rum's left eye (as hinted by Gosho in the OdaxAoyama interview and File 972) and ultimately getting defeated by Rum after letting his guard down around Vermouth (Fake Asaka/Wakasa). I suspect that Tsutomu's confrontation with them lead to him surviving (like Mary) and changing his identity and appearance (likely through plastic surgery). Afterwards, to pursue the organization further, it makes sense that he would have moved to Japan, where the culprit(s) "Karasuma" originate from, just like the other overseas agents (i.e Hondou Ethan from the CIA). Just like Mary, who got ahold of a fake pass to fly to Japan (revealed by Gosho in SDB 100+), Tsutomu had also gotten ahold of a fake pass with the alias "Kuroda Hyoue". I think that he then decided to investigate the Karasuma Group/Black Organization, by becoming a public security officer of the Japanese police (in order to extract information easier, as referenced in File 1033). In order to get a pass into the police academy in Japan (disregarding of his blank background), I suspect that Kuroda/Tsutomu secretly relied on his relationship with the head of the Ōoka Group (who is currently retired) that was revealed in File 1088, similar to how his friend Haneda Yasuharu did in File 1039-1042. The Ōoka family has been shown and hinted to have great influence and connections with people in high positions, like the Tokyo governor (File 992), making them more than capable of helping Kuroda/Tsutomu join the japanese police. In other words, the same time as his eldest son started to work towards becoming an FBI agent 17 years ago (File 972), Kuroda started to work towards getting accepted by the National Police Agency (File 913). He then built himself up and became what I think is the backstage administrator of the NPA's security planning division (who recieves all the classified reports of their NOC:s), all within 7 years. Seven years later (since his disappearance), Kuroda/Tsutomu has made a name for himself within the NPA and has diligently kept his safe distance from his family, but before the status quo with his family could change, an incident took place around 10 years ago, that lead to his 10-year-long coma (File 914). We recently learned that Iori Muga, the current butler of the Ōoka family, was a former coworker of Kuroda within the Public Security, who went with the alias "Sakakibara" while undercover, which was likely before Kuroda's 10-year coma (File 1090). I think that what lead to Kuroda's burn-scar-causing and right-eye-losing incident 10 years ago was that Iori Muga (who is actually Rum's true appearance) deemed Kuroda as a threatening and formidable enemy to the black organization. He therefore secretly orchestrated the incident that made Kuroda fall into a coma. Kuroda's hair colour changed due to the stress of the incident (his hair was perhaps shaved off for surgery purposes and white hair grew instead) and he didn't wake up until 10 years later (File 914). I suspect that when Kuroda/Tsutomu woke up from his coma, he suffered actual memory loss to an extent, which is why he was perceived to have become a different person (As Yui mentioned). This concept was already foreshadowed as a possibility through Vermouth's disguise cover story when she faced Mary as Tsutomu (File 1048). This would also explain why Kuroda immediately reacted to Wakasa Rumi in the news in File 980, while also still acting unaware of her identity as if he is trying to confirm suspicions of her being a criminal tied to the Kohji case in File 987-989, despite potentially having met her 17 years ago as Tsutomu. The amnesia could have made him forget her potential role in his demise 17 years ago, but he still found her familiar enough to the point of investigating her and making the connection between her name and Kohji's dying message. While he may have forgotten significant things from his life as Tsutomu, his goal to take down the BO and find out who Kohji's killer is hasn't changed. Although the NPA had him move to Nagano to ease back into his work (before he moved to Tokyo MPD as the new superintendent), I think they gave Kuroda permission to still keep his Backstage administrator role active and stay in contact with their NOC ("Bourbon"/Furuya Rei) by Kuroda's request (File 1017).

Boss Suspects' True Identities (Theory) We have been introduced to two new mysterious old men so far that are framed to be Black Organization Boss suspects. As previously mentioned, I suspect that "Vader" (the old man with the respirator) is Haneda Yasuharu, since he has both reasons to find the police incompetent (File 1090), due to failing to catch his son's killer, as well as for him to recognize Mary and protect her from getting exposed publically through the news (File 1096-1097), since he is Tsutomu's friend. As for the newly introduced Hawk Elder (who is clearly being framed to be Karasuma Renya through his Crow-resembling Hawk pet), he was revealed to have some kind of anger towards someone connected to the recent Kid Killer News with Conan & Jirokichi photo in it, since he used his staff to crack the phone showing it (File 1102). After thinking through all the possibilities, I think it makes the most sense that Hawk Elder's true identity is the Ōoka retiree, Momiji's Grandpa who was acquainted with Haneda & Kuroda (who was also foreshadowed in File 1088). He is the only mysterious rich old man that we haven't been introduced to. Also, in the M21 guidebook, Gosho revealed that the Ōoka family are a rich family just like the Suzuki's, only that Sonoko's uncle Jirokichi is slightly richer. This could be setup and cause for some intense rivalry between Ōoka retiree & Jirokichi, where Ōoka retiree could be harboring ill feelings out of jealousy towards Jirokichi, who keeps getting more publicity and gaining more wealth. This would explain why he cracked his phone with Jirokichi's photo open out of anger (that is meant to mislead us into thinking his target was Conan). To summarize my speculations, we now have three silhouetted rich old figures, and their identities are:

You are a true champ for consistently keeping DCW forum on a lifeline as new chapters release

I don't think it's Billy, since he does not have the same visible cheekbones like Billy’s. However, the fact that Gosho drew him and revealed him to have foreign features makes me believe he is being setup to potentially be relevant in the plot, along with the mysterious old man (who I suspect is Haneda Kohji's father, Haneda Yasuharu). I look forward to seeing more from those two, so I can develop some of my suspicions I currently have on him. I wrote about my Wakasa theory here. Wakasa is hinted at practicing kick-boxing (since they had boxing vs kick-boxing easter eggs in Hatoyama farm case File 1054), and it's not that odd that Vermouth would have a kick-boxing training as an underworld figure who has to face a lot of danger. She has already been shown to have acrobatic skills (showing that she can really move her body effectively even when wounded, while she was disguised as the japanese serial killer in New York). we learned that Rum's 3 inconsistent descriptions were deliberate rumors that Rum spread to hide his true appearance and identity and that only prosthetic eye was correct. The conclusion I came to from this vital information update is that Rum might possess mainly 1 of these 3 descriptions and that he spread the other 2 rumors along with it so that if by chance any member got a look at him and spread what they witnessed, the truth would be camouflaged among 3 indistinguishable rumors. Meaning that Rum (as a man) would mainly be either a “stocky man”, an “effeminate man” or an “old man”. In this case where Rum is actually Iori Muga in disguise, I think that Rum is a strong-built effeminate man who disguises as an old man, making his very appearance misleading just like the rumors he is spreading. My personal theory about Karasuma Renya's form is this. I don't currently see any big significant role planned for Katsumata Chikara, but I could see Gosho introducing a light connection to Haneda Kohji at best, since he seems to be around the same age Kohji would have been. At least we know from the recent intro of his daughter that Gosho hasn't forgotten about him. I just read on it, I'm lowkey mind-blown by the similarities with Kohji case. "Seito Sakakibara", an alias given to a teen killer who killed two kids in 1997..... from the time that Rum arc started, this real-life double-homicide case took place 17 years ago. Wouldn't surprise me if he got inspiration from that incident (a teen killer), since I do believe Rum (Muga) was 18 when he killed Amanda and Kohji. Thanks for reading my post and discussing with me

This holds so much promise for the rest this year and the next.

I wrote about my thoughts on it here.

File 1088-1090 Review/Discussion This case was just full of surprises and is showing in my opinion big potential for Rum arc yielding one of the most satisfying plot twists that could beat Vermouth arc's Araide twist. To start off, we had the awaited comeback of the Ooka family, but with the very much unexpected reveal that Kuroda Hyoue has ties to the retiree of the Ooka family (Momij's grandfather) (File 1088). This connection gave an implication to some kind of history between Kuroda and the former Ooka family head. This connection is already quite hintful, since we recently learned that Ooka family has ties with the rich Haneda family (File 1039-1042), and Kuroda has been hinted to have a particular interest in the Kohji case (due to him immediately thinking of that case just from seeing the "Wakasa Rumi" name and her stunt in the news) (File 987). Since the common link between Kuroda and Haneda is the Ooka, this further pushes the idea that Kuroda Hyoue could be Akai Tsutomu, who is confirmed to be a family friend of the head of the Haneda family (File 1037), Haneda Yasuharu. This could also mean that Ooka retiree is aware of Kuroda's true identity (a fellow friend of Haneda). Then, we also get more hints on Iori Muga (who I have speculated to be Rum's true identity undercover), where he showed more Rum-like features; an old habit indicating that he has monocular vision (File 1089). Iori Muga has an old habit of turning his head often every he time gets off a car. This is a very common habit among people who only see through one eye, because having monocular vision means that your peripheral vision worsens, meaning that you have to compensate for the lack of full view with turning your head often. This was among the crucial awaited hints to point to Iori having a prosthetic eye (and by extension being the one who is going around disguised as Wakita Kanenori, Rum). Finally, we have the most exciting part of this case, which is the resolution chapter, where we got a lot of context clues to Iori's history and Kuroda's relationship with him, as well as the big tease to a mysterious figure that is heavily framed to be the infamous Boss of the Black Organization. To start off, we learn that Kuroda has been aware of Iori's old habit since way back and that Iori has explained it to him in the past as it being a habit to check his surroundings for any stalkers, as well as that Iori used to go by the first name alias "Sakakibara" (Ooka Echizen reference, likely full alias: "Takewaki Sakakibara") in the past while being undercover and working with Kuroda Hyoue (File 1090). This was then followed by Conan connecting Kuroda's words of habit "inspecting" and "disinfecting" to being that of the Public Security and started suspecting that Kuroda and Iori are a part of it. This reveal, that finally not only doesn't shy away from portraying Iori Muga as a main plot character but also reveals that he at least used to work undercover with Kuroda/the Public Security, is the most exciting part of this case, as it brings so much to discuss and has exciting possibilites for the future. For starters, this confirms one of my suspicions about Iori Muga. If Iori Muga had this familiar coworker-relationship with Kuroda Hyoue in the past, it would automatically mean that Iori is older than the age he claims to be (30 years old) as the butler of Ooka family, because Kuroda Hyoue has been in a 10-year coma (File 914). If Iori Muga was working with the Public Security under Kuroda's command 10 years ago, it would mean that Iori would have been 20 years old, which is abnormally younger than the average police officer (for reference, the prodigy Furuya Rei graduated police academy at the age of 22, and that's before entering the NPA). This means that Iori Muga is definitely older than 30 years old, which confirms the last key speculation of mine, which is that Iori Muga actually has an age that is competent enough to carry out the 17-year-old murder case of Haneda Kohji. Secondly, among the biggest implications of this reveal is the fact that Iori Muga used to work undercover with Kuroda (which is heavily implied to be for the Public Security). This could be bigger than it seems, because if Iori Muga were to actually be Rum/BO, it would mean that Rum/BO had successfully infiltrated the Public Security over 10 years ago. The concept of BO members wanting to infiltrate governmental agencies was already foreshadowed properly in File 1049, when Vermouth was revealed to have been trying to impersonate Akai Tsutomu in order to infiltrate the MI6. If Rum had infiltrated the security police this long ago, then it's very likely that Rum was the one who ordered Vermouth to infiltrate the MI6 in the first place, in order to gain inside-intel on how much they know about the organization. This Iori Muga development could potentially be Gosho's setup to revealing what lead to the mysterious incident that put Kuroda Hyoue, a seemingly high-positioned NPA agent, in a coma. After getting close to Kuroda Hyoue, Muga could have learned of how much of a threat Kuroda is to the Black Organization and executed an order to eliminate him. This could be were Kuroda's and Wakasa's history comes into play. Wakasa (who I suspect to be Vermouth in disguise), who showed a big reaction to Kuroda's sudden appearance in burning tent case (File 988), could have been the one who Rum ordered to assassinate him in an orchestrated accident, which ultimately lead to Kuroda surviving but not posing a threat to the BO further. This would explain Wakasa's sinister behavior of trying to fish out information from Kuroda on why he is interested in her and how much he knows. The next panels of this scene however arguably reveals the biggest indication on how dangerous this situation is. Kuroda Hyoue reveals that he has heard about Iori meeting Amuro and Iori essentially reveals that he has learned that Amuro, who he directly met during his own introduction (File 981), is a promising NPA agent that is restrained by his past. This setup might have huge and dangerous implications, because if Iori Muga really is the main antagonist of this arc, then this would mean that he is now aware of that one of his subordinates (Bourbon) is a NOC for the NPA. This would mean that moving forward, Rum will have the power to directly destroy Rei's infiltration mission. However, if Rum were to act now on this powerful information, it could tip off Kuroda, who just now learned that someone outside of the "inner circle" knows about Rei's undercover mission, so perhaps this could be how Gosho could delay any immediate threat towards Bourbon's life. This however just further pushes forward the notion that we are gearing up for Rum arc's climax and that Gosho might start giving us continuous main plot progression in the upcoming cases. Finally... the most controversial cliffhanger scene takes place, where a mysterious old man, that is shadowed out and using a respirator, is revealed to be driving by all of them, showing very much intended similarities to the infamous Boss of the black organization (Karasuma Renya) and who is showing negative opinions on the police. This old man, who majority are speculating to be Karasuma Renya, is in my opinion a very on-brand red-herring/mislead of Gosho's to make the reader believe it's the main antagonist of this whole series. This old man has very stereotypical features and elements to him that signals the reader that this could be the boss, like for example that he is driving a retro car like Gin, using a respirator for life support (which is what people would imagine for an old man who is 140+ years old and is supposed to be dead) and who is showing a bad opinion about the police (the "good guys"). This is however done without any explicit evidence to that he really is BO-affiliated. This is a classic Gosho mystery-writing move, where he frames characters strategically to seem one way without definite evidence for the sake of his iconic twists. I think that the timing of this tease rather suggests that it could be one other powerful/rich figure that was active and teased in the previous Ooka/Heiji case and who has good reason to dislike the police, Haneda Yasuharu (Kohji's father). Haneda Kohji was revealed in the previous Ooka/Heiji case (File 1042) to be the son of a very rich/powerful family. This is just in time to fit with this mysterious rich old man. We also know that Haneda Yasuharu was revealed to have asked for his friend Akai Tsutomu's help in order to solve the murder of his son (File 1037), which indirectly reveals that he didn't find the police competent enough to handle his son's case. This perfectly fits with the mysterious old man's negative opinions on the police, who failed to solve his son's murder. Now, here comes an exciting prospect to this setup. For Gosho to use Haneda Yasuharu as a mislead of being the Boss of the BO ("Bad guy"), it would mean that he is planning for the twist that he is actually a "good guy". However, that framing alone doesn't seem complete when you consider his writing of previous overarching mysteries. Gosho usually uses his framed characters in pairs of "framed good" vs "framed bad". Examples: Vermouth arc: Jodie, Akai, James (framed as a "bad guy") vs Araide (framed as a "good guy") Bourbon arc: Subaru, Masumi (framed as a "bad guy") vs Scarred Akai, Amuro (framed as a "good guy") So, what immediately comes to mind is that what Gosho is actually setting up with the mysterious old man is for him to be the "bad guy" to someone he is very clearly trying to portray as the "good guy" in this chapter, Iori Muga. I have speculated that Rum (as Iori Muga) is actually trying stay close to the Haneda family, and by extension Haneda Yasuharu, through the Ooka family in order to monitor their activities partaining to his crime 17 years ago, especially due to Haneda Kohji case info being uploaded online constantly. This portrayal of the old man, who most likely is Haneda Yasuharu, just fits like a glove with this new portrayal of Iori Muga, since we could see them framed as each other's enemies. So, when compared with the examples mentioned above, this time it could be: Rum arc: Mysterious old man (framed as a "bad guy") vs Iori Muga (framed as a "good guy"). This could be Gosho's strategic plan to subvert the readers' expectations by essentially flipping the script right on its head, which in my opinion shows great potential to beating the big twist of the very-beloved Vermouth arc. Overall, this case just set the bar high for what Rum arc could give us in its climax, and I have never been more excited for the future of Detective Conan.

It's framed to be a disguise. Still up in the air what extent of disguise it is though.

January 27th. Spoilers can be expected at earliest 22nd. Preview for the next case will officially release 20th, and leaks for the preview will drop at earliest 15th.

Was seeing it more as a one-time codename transfer, but yeah, I guess that's possible too.

Right, that's the conclusion based on the theory. As Gosho said in SDB Black+ (in regards to very young age of codenamed members): "what of it? (laughs)" Could be, though I'm not really sure if Gosho plans on using that concept for Rum specifically anymore (since my original Wakita theory got debunked). Perhaps it's planned for Sharon/Chris ("mother" passing on the codename "Vermouth" to "daughter").

I lean towards "no" until there is actual indications of that like in Vermouth arc (where they introduced a senior "Vineyard" for that sort of reveal). Would be no point in the whole "hiding 5 years from your age" angle if it's all fabricated (due to halted aging). I'm rather leaning towards Muga basically being a "Kyogoku Makoto" 17 yrs ago.

Unfortunately not ^^; The point was rather that I have enough other reasons to suspect him as Rum, that these little nuggets only serves as more assurance, rather than the backbone of it all. Sounds quite likely and promising ^^

That is a part of the fun to explore, wouldn't you say? I almost wanted to bring up Shiragami case as an example of a coincidence, until I realized that the whole "two of the same person, where the real one is disguised as someone else" is straight up the whole Scar Akai & Subaru plot in Bourbon arc I do think however that relying on gimmicks and concepts that Gosho has demonstrated within cases of the arc in question serves as the most reliable approach in figuring out Gosho's mystery (based on his mentioned track record), regardless if it ends up being true or coincidence. In this case however, I dare say that there are more than enough reasons for this special butler with a unique name box intro to be the man to suspect as being Rum, and by extension, the one who would need this conveniently fitting "name box deception" concept that Gosho used in this arc (that conveniently would make him the same age as the first person Gosho portrayed to be the one who comes the closest to being Rum, Kansuke). Now, as for predictions for when the "main event" could happen, I'm looking at it happening in another 5 volumes, seeing as there is now a pattern for major progressions/developments every 5 volumes (Vol 90: "ASACA RUM" [First Rum development since Kir's message], Volume 95: "CARASUMA" [Boss reveal & major ShinRan development), and finally Volume 100: first Rum reveal [Camel faking his death]). I could therefore see Volume 105 being our next landmark for major developments (like for example, Heizuha confession / Rum climax [true identity] / Kohji case reveals [i.e dying message continuation]).