MeiTanteixX

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]).

I wouldn't personally go as far as using Mystery train as an example, since it still fullfilled the purpose of a climax, where it not only revealed the identity of the titular antagonist, but also built it up properly through the involvement of the relevant players and lead it to a resolution of the antagonist's activities up to that point (revealing Bourbon's disguise stunts and his goals) as well as resolving one of their goals (Sherry). This FBI serial murder case only revealed 1 thing... Rum's fake identity... and left everything else still pending a resolution (unlike Mystery Train). Still feels like a stretch, since not that many seems to even know of the extent of Rum's secretive nature to begin with. Rye had only heard the name a few times, Sherry had only picked up the same rumors that most BO members have, and not even Vodka/Chianti knew that those rumors were created by Rum himself for the same purpose that he is hiding his voice. If even these codenamed members didn't know this, I don't think that Rum could, or even should, safely assume that the average BO member would expect for Rum to not show his face at all, after they're already mislead into thinking that people have seen his face (due to the existing rumors). It is quite alarming that we get the big Morofushi highlight in the same case as Rum seemingly looking into Bourbon's loyalty. If not Rum, I still hope that we get any kind of explanation as to how Scotch got exposed. Would definitely tense-up the drama between Bourbon and Rum if Rum, the fellow disciple under the same "teacher," was responsible though. Indeed, he would technically have three in total. Was mainly looking at it as "the butler" (Iori) being foreshdowed to have an additional phone used for yet another active fake role, so basically two phones representing two fake identities. Seemed like that was intended to be the actual highlight twist/reveal of this BO case, whereas the Wakita reveal was merely, as you had mentioned before, the beginning of sorts (like Vermouth/Kir during Reunion/Black Impact), or as I put it, a "surface reveal". Essentially, this is where the build-up towards a proper climax starts.

"Rum = Iori Muga / Wakita Kanenori (Karasuma Muga)" Theory Summary (Updated) Rum bending his knee for his "old man" disguise (like Kid) Rum carrying two phones (like Fukamachi) Rum's goals Most likely to find and eliminate the one who is behind the "Haneda Kohji murder case" info leaks online that highlights his 17-year-old screw-up (the dying message that exposes his and the Boss' surname "Karasuma"), as well as anyone that actively investigates that case. His first move (that might be the activity that Kir was alerting with her message "RUM" in File 898) was most likely to watch/surveillance the actions of Haneda Kohji's noble family as "Iori Muga" (Butler of the Oooka family), using the Oooka's close connection to them (since the Haneda family seemingly rely and trust the Oooka household), since they would naturally be the first suspects behind the leaks. His second move was to investigate the famous detective Mouri Kogoro, who got involved with the "Soul Detective" Hotta Gaito's Kohji case investigation (File 951-953), as "Wakita Kanenori" (old mystery-loving sushi chef), using Iroha sushi restaurant that is next-door to Mouri Detective Agency as a means to get close to him in order to verify if he is investigating the Kohji case and eliminate him if necessary (File 975-977). Timeline speculation on Rum's relevant actions as "Iori Muga" (True appearance) & "Wakita Kanenori" (Fake appearance)

Detective Conan File 1061-1066 Review/Discussion The information in File 1065, followed by File 1066 reveal drastically changed my viewpoints on Rum and the road map to Rum's resolution. Starting from File 1065, 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”. Then came the 2 vital information that connect with File 1066, which is that Rum has changed his face and uses a silly name. Here is where the major shifts starts, since we get what is in my opinion undeniable indications that Rum is indeed Wakita (amongst the 3, as SDB BLACK+ indicated, without foulplay). Rum was seen silhouetted mentioning in his recurring polite speech style the "nostalgic story" from 2 years ago during Rye's exposure,... ...which was soon after followed by an old man sitting in the same car as Rum, recalling the same incident that Rum did, being revealed to be the old man from that Rye loyalty test incident and is shown to clearly possess the one feature that is true about Rum, a prosthetic eye (depicted/revealed in the same way as Kuroda's), and that old man is revealed to be Wakita Kanenori without a wig, moustache, buckteeth and eyepatch. If that wasn't enough, we got another File 1008 situation, where the side-note of File 1066 states that he is "the man with the silly name" (despite the story not even clearing up directly how "Wakita Kanenori" is a silly name), which is essentially handing out the confirmation to the reader that Wakita Kanenori is Rum (similarly to how we got a Boss identity confirmation in the side-note without the story directly addressing it as such). That being said however... We ended File 1066 with Team Conan just starting to learn about the new hints "changed his face" and "uses a silly name", just before the aforementioned reveal. We got no sign of resolution whatsoever to the Rum mystery. And when it comes to build-up towards the mystery climax, we had none of Gosho's traditional case setup where all the suspects/players in the overarching mystery comes together as the titular antagonist's goals takes the spotlight and the detective (Conan) has pieced the mystery behind antagonist's identity together. To me, this was the biggest indicator that Wakita being Rum is being treated as nothing more than just a "surface reveal" to a more crucial twist/reveal regarding Rum that is being saved for Conan to solve, leading to a future proper Rum mystery resolution (like the Halloween ship case and Mystery train case). This reveal also surfaced another important indication, that further supported this notion. Rum's old man appearance was used completely undisguised/unaltered as he directly approached a potential traitor (Rye) 2 years ago, which is contradictory to the established behavior/M.O of Rum, where he not only conceals his voice with a voice changer, but even goes as far as to spread misleading rumors of himself, all in order to hide his identity. This further makes it seem like the old man appearance is nothing more than a disguise from the very beginning, which further goes in line with the established information in File 1065 that Rum has changed/disguised his face. So despite Rum seemingly looking to be an “old man” (as according to the descriptions), the truth is still very much likely to be far from that with the new info from Vodka (like for example, an “effeminate man” who has disguised his face). Therefore, I'm seeing this as merely the beginning towards a real Rum climax, where Rum's/the old man's real identity and face is gonna be revealed (which might happen during the "main event" that Gin foreshadowed in File 1062). Basically, we have resolved the "Bourbon arc"-formulated part of the story, and are potentially venturing into the "Vermouth arc"-formulated part of the story. This is where I’m seeing Iori Muga, the "exceedingly impatient", seemingly english-influenced effeminate butler with a polite speech style, fitting in as the end-goal twist of being Rum’s true identity (through Kohji’s dying message) for Gosho. There naturally will rise questions of how he manages his time as a butler for the Oooka household (to surveillance the Haneda family that the Oooka are connected with) and as a sushi chef (to watch over the detective who might be investigating the Kohji case), but due to lack of information on both ends (Wakita's and Iori's work schedules), it's something left to explore. Iori Muga could have been given the free time by Momiji (who is clearly portrayed to respect him and his input) to be able to spend those days in Tokyo disguised as “Wakita Kanenori”, as far as we know. Overall however, I truly enjoyed this this case as a whole. File 1066 was definitely my favorite chapter of this case and I'm very happy about the twist (and especially its delivery) that the old man from Kir arc was Rum all along. It made this whole “BO vs Camel” focus way more worth spending time on, and I can only look forward to what’s in store in the actual “main event”.

Wakita Kanenori

Locked room murder trick deduction v.2 (File 1059) (joint work with Ned)

Locked room murder trick deduction (File 1058) Basically, the idea could be to utilize weight in order to turn the thumbturn lock from a 45 degrees position to a complete 90 degrees (horizontal) position. By adding enough weight for it to start turning clockwise slowly, you might have enough time to close the door before it fully turns horizontal and locks up. In the first case and second case, there were bags involved with weights on them (big lotion bottle in Atsumi's and a lot of trash in Taiji's). To camouflage the bags on the floor, the culprit messed up the bathroom and apartment. In the third case however, there was no bag, however, we were made aware of that Koretsuga had a lot of kitchen utensils hanging up the wall, possibly to make note of that they all have holes in them. This could be were a string could fit in, where it replaces the bag's effect of combining all their weight around the thumbturn lock. The culprit might have tied the string as a lasso in order to pull the knot out from below the door after locking the door in order to untie it and remove the string. When the police later opened the door, the utensils could have been pushed to the side (like in Atsumi's case), making their awkward placing from the string pull disappear.

Just so you guys know, Gosho had confirmed in the Boss reveal interview, that came out with File 1008, that the anagram hint hits the mark with CARASUMA: So if there are more twists coming, it's not by the alteration of the mirror message, but by the addition of other elements as a part of the message.