This wiki page brings up a lot of good points, but I'm still doubtful. If Akai and Conan and Rena planned it all out, then their behavior would be different. First off, everything is planned before Rena is returned to the BO. That means they might have suspected that Gin would order Kir to kill Akai. First off, that's a bit far fetched, but I can deal with it. But when Kir is really ordered by Gin to kill Akai, she is shocked and her eyes widen and turn grey for a few seconds, a sign that she wasn't anticipating it. That made me a bit hesitant to believe that they planned it that far in advance. And yet another hint is when Conan encounters the BO yet again. The next story arc, the one with the red sweaters and the BO trying to kill scar Akai, Conan is shocked when the Detective Boys said that the person caught on television (scar Akai) looked a lot like the man with the cold during the bus jacking incident (Akai). If Conan knew that Akai was still alive, he wouldn't be too surprised that scar Akai looked like Akai (given that scar Akai and Akai are the same people). And even if Conan knew Akai was disguised as someone else, he shouldn't be shocked to see a man who looks similar to Akai walking around. It could just be a look alike. What's the big deal? Just the way Rena and Conan have acted look a bit suspicious. I truly doubt that they ever planned out Akai's "death". I'm pretty sure Akai is truly dead.