MeiTanteixX

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.

yeah, it has been the most likely option since the reveal that Haneda Yasuharu was Akai Tsutomu's friend.

Akai Family (Past)

Who would your wild guess be?

Can't wait for proper plot progression! ^^

Rum specifically wasn't shown to be wary of either or. We just know the BO as a whole had their attention on both cases, because it's connected to Rum's mistake. As for Hotta, he wasn't shown to be an "allowed"/dismissed Kohji case investigator by BO. We just didn't follow the BO perspective in regards to his Kohji case segment announcement (except at the very end through Gin & Vodka after his death), as we did through Bourbon & Vermouth with Rokumichi's ASACA song announcement.

Oooka & Haneda household connection Recent development from File 1042 makes Iori Muga even more suspicious, since we now found out that the Haneda household is a wealthy associate of the Oooka household. His position as a Butler for the Oooka, who seems to be trusted and relied on by the Haneda, makes for a perfect information source (without getting too close to the target) about what they know about the Kohji case and what they are up to, to cover for his 17-year-old mistake (File 953), especially if RUM suspects (naturally) that the Haneda family are behind the repeated Kohji case information upload online (File 948) which the BO keeps taking down.

I actually have a theory which fits with his seemingly confirming reply to SDB BLACK+ Q92 “Is Rum certainly amongst the trio Kuroda, Wakasa & Wakita?”. I don’t actually think it’s as straightforward as he made it seem. I think that his reply stems from the fact that... "Wakita Kanenori = Highball" Theory Wakita Kanenori is the former “Rum” in the BO, and his current code-name is actually the same as the drink that was referenced in his introduction, “Highball” (File 975). Highball is a cocktail drink that is a mix of a liquor and non-alcoholic drink, and a common one among them is “Rum + Coke”. These two drinks were also referenced in his intro (as “Pirate’s spirit” & “Cola”) along with "Highball". I think that after passing on the second-in-command title, he was given this cocktail code-name as a symbol of that he is not the same Rum anymore (the same concentration of Rum in the drink in other words). In other words, from my perspective, Gosho is pulling another misleading comment like he did with Animal Crossing for File 906 (where "Rum" he is thinking of is not the same as the one you would originally think), where he had said “Rum has actually already appeared (laughs)” (which was actually referring to Lum).

Hyoue's impatience portrayal while talking to Yamato is certainly incriminating, but then again, that's a part of a package of obvious Rum portrayal, and we certainly haven't seen that side more than once. I don't think however that Rumi and Wakita has acted unusually, or unjustifiably, impatient. I think their time is yet to come, considering how fresh that newly established intel on Rum is. In comparison however, Iori's obsession of time is definitely much clearly defined and distinguishable (as you said, counting seconds) through his continues attention on it during mulitple matters.

Rum impatience and time sensitivity VS Iori Muga impatience and time sensitivity

Wakasa Rumi's memories Wakasa Rumi's pain Conan's fake identity examples

Indeed ^^ Thank you

Click "edit", select everything that you want to surround in spoilers, click on the eye symbol for "spoiler". And then "save changes".

Rei & Shiho

the long frequent breaks is so that Gosho doesn't overwork himself and worsen his health, since he has had a lot of health issues (like many Mangakas) due to overworking (a common thing in the japanese culture). He used to sleep 3 hours a day in the last decades, but now with these long breaks between cases, he is sleeping much better.

All I can say is... there's no requirement for Rumi's piece(s) to be the exact same object(s) taken from that case because they are generic objects that aren't unique to that incident. You can find an uma piece anywhere. We can at least infer however that such knowledge was acquired by her (whether it was by directly being in possession of said objects or whether she got the info/objects second-hand). I'm pretty confident about this being an in-universe word play, much like "Mizunashi Rena"="no water (0) re (0) na (7)". My interpretation on that is straightforward. Wakita uses the idiom "Toki wa Kane nari" frequently (which without any translations was made directly into a name by rearranging letters). He is after all portrayed to be an edokko who uses japanese proverbs. Now, as for the later bit about Rum using an english version of that quote, that's a matter of what ones preconception of Rum is, if he is someone more accustomed to the english language, or if he is an edokko who for some reason decided to use it in a more out-of-character way. In the former angle, then it's possible that there's some kind of influence between Rum and Wakita that lead to both of them using the same idiom (but in their own way). In the latter angle, then that would mean that Wakita, as Rum, simply chose it because that was the name that came natural to him, because he uses its origin often, even in a different language. In the same way, if he is indeed working on Gin's behalf when it comes to Kogoro, and if he is indeed behind Mary's shrinking (as alluded to by his fitting covered left eye to Akai's left eye, which was hit by a Mary-knife-hand-strike), He is more than likely the source of the idiom "It's like encountering a demon in the darkness" as well, which could mean that he is indeed the idiom bank who (in the former angle) influences his fellow members (maybe as a high-up senior/mentor/coach figure) or (in the latter angle) simply rubbed off on Gin as second-in-command (with the latest SDB allusion of antipathy between Gin and Rum, this latter angle seems unlikely).

that, or just anyone else that got ahold of Rum's testimony, like the boss (who views Vermouth as his favorite due to some relationship). the one who pried it out of his hand could be Rum himself. that's the issue with "Wakita Kanenori". His name itself is an obvious alias derived from "Toki wa kanenari" (more than likely at least). In other words, without an actual real first name that doesn't seem like an alias, there's no method to idenitfying him as Rum through the dying message (assuming he is even Rum to begin with), and I don't see us getting a new name from him that the shogi piece + whatever remaining clues can allude to.

I see, so in the latter scenario, Kohji locks Rum out as well, and Kohji and Asaka are not having their chat inside his room. Oh no, it doesn't even have to be the exact same piece. for starters, such a piece wouldn't even be able to endanger him, since it's just a shogi piece that you can wipe fingerprints away from. nothing about such a piece could be narrowed down to originating from the Kohji case, unless there's distinguishable marks on it that a photo or a non-biased witness could corroborate was made by/belonged to Kohji. And like I said, it doesn't have to be the same piece. It's enough for Vermouth to get ahold of the info that such piece existed, whether Rum got rid of the piece or not. (not sure if Gosho wrote that M20 scene, but I wouldn't dismiss that either way, since Gosho was acting as a supervisor) And I assume there's no suggestions yet for how that shogi piece, which Kohji must have clenched in the middle of his right palm, plays into the dying message or identitfies Rum?

Mhm. I agree. Considering that room service was ordered during Amanda's previous meeting, hinting to Sato's trivia about Shogi players eating sweets during a game (File 946), Rum could've also started a game of chess with Amanda in order to get her snack and drink tea during the game (so he can poison it). A fight would, in theory, have to cause cause a mess in Amanda's room. Considering that Asaka is a bodyguard figure, it wouldn't be an mess-free takedown. If he was distracted, then he wouldn't have time to clean things up. Wouldn't you agree that the information about a tidy/unmoved room is suggesting that Rum had enough time without distraction to clean up any Asaka-fight-aftermath mess? Ok, this one explains Amanda's clean room, but if Kohji was immediately handled after Asaka was taken down, how did Kohji have time to prepare the dying message? If he was wounded(defensive wounds) and poisoned before Tsutomu interruption, would he be able to move to the bathroom, crack/remove the hand-mirror from its frame, accurately cut out the letters and reassemble the remaining shards into the hand-mirror frame, leave the bathroom and place the mirror under the broken crockery pieces before finally not being able to take the pain of the poison and die?