[[File:EP861-Asaka.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Photo of Asaka.]]
[[File:EP861-Asaka.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Photo of Asaka.]]
Rum is the close aide of the [[The Boss|boss]] of the [[Black Organization]], then he/she is their second-in-command. His/her identity, sex and mission are currently unknown. He/she changes his/her voice with a machine when he/she communicates with his/her subordinates.
Rum is the close aide of the [[The Boss|boss]] of the [[Black Organization]], then he/she is their second-in-command. His/her identity, gender and mission are currently unknown. He/she changes his/her voice with a machine when he/she communicates with his/her subordinates.
Rum was involved with the death of [[Kohji Haneda]], [[Case from 17 years ago|seventeen years ago]]. [[Gin]] implies that it is an incident in which Rum had screwed up. The main suspect is Asaka, the missing bodyguard of Amanda Hughes.
Rum was involved with the death of [[Kohji Haneda]], [[Case from 17 years ago|seventeen years ago]]. [[Gin]] implies that it is an incident in which Rum had screwed up. The main suspect is Asaka, the missing bodyguard of Amanda Hughes.
Revision as of 13:26, 11 November 2020
This article contains significant spoilers about major events concerning this person. It is likely you will be spoiled if you have not read all the manga released to date. To find out what pages will be safe for you to read, please consult our wiki spoiler policy.
Rum (ラム,Ramu?) is the second-in-command of the Black Organization and the second main antagonist in the entire manga and anime franchise Detective Conan.
Background
Photo of Asaka.
Rum is the close aide of the boss of the Black Organization, then he/she is their second-in-command. His/her identity, gender and mission are currently unknown. He/she changes his/her voice with a machine when he/she communicates with his/her subordinates.
Rum was involved with the death of Kohji Haneda, seventeen years ago. Gin implies that it is an incident in which Rum had screwed up. The main suspect is Asaka, the missing bodyguard of Amanda Hughes.
It has been heavily implied that Rum is one of these three main suspects: Hyoue Kuroda, Rumi Wakasa, and Kanenori Wakita. In the Black SDB+ 2018, Gosho Aoyama confirmed that Rum is one of the three. They are interested in Shinichi Kudo and Rum charges Bourbon to gather information about him. He/she also considers Yusaku Kudo a threat to the organization and orders Vermouth to investigate him.
Personality
Bourbon has told Conan that Rum is exceedingly impatient. Rum has a keen sense of observation, being able to detect different message codes due to the difference in romaji writing. As such, that saves his/her subordinates from being captured and allows them to counter attack the FBI.
Appearance
Rum has a damaged eye which has been replaced with an artificial eye. It is unknown which eye was damaged.
Various Black Organization members have given conflicting accounts of his/her overall appearance and build. Some say Rum is a strongly-built man, some say he/she looks feminine, and some say he/she is an old man. The conflicting descriptions of Rum's appearance suggests that he/she doesn't present himself to others in a straightforward fashion. Open spoiler box to see images.
After several FBI members were killed as the Black Organization was able to decode their communication, the FBI planted a fake code. However, Rum was able to detect such fake code, then his/her subordinates were able to counter trap and attacked the FBI members instead.
Haibara visualizes his/her three black figures as in file 906, and his/her artificial eye in her hallucination.
Rum sends orders to Vermouth and Gin ordering them not to execute Bourbon and Kir because he/she received a new message, apparently from Curaçao but in reality from Agasa as instructed by Conan, that they weren't NOCs.
Rum also orders them to retrieve Curaçao to verify if the message is authentic or not.
When she finally regained her lost memory, Curaçao's flashback shows Rum speaking to Vermouth through a computer in an altered voice. Vermouth was about to execute Curaçao because her brain recorded facts inconvenient to the organization, but Rum's voice stopped her. He appointed Curaçao as his/her right-handed agent.
Vermouth has a conversation with him/her during the ending credit, while she is in her car along with Kir. She lets Kir listen to what he/she has to say before hanging up.
Relationships analysis
Black Organization
The Boss
The boss is his/her only direct superior, meaning that Renya Karasuma must trust him/her the most, enough to make him/her the highest ranking executive agent.
Curaçao
Rum contacting Curaçao.
Curaçao is a member who works as Rum's right-hand agent, but has only appeared in the non-canon movie. In the past, because her brain recorded facts inconvenient to the organization, Vermouth was about to execute her, but Rum decided to appoint her as her right-hand agent.
He is either missing or has a prosthetic for his right eye.
He took interest in the name Wakasa Rumi, which is similar to one anagram of Haneda Kohji's hint "U MASCARA", which is "ASACA RUM", and went so far as to spy on Wakasa.
He seems to match both the old man and strong man descriptions. His liking of red tea is frowned upon by others as a "trait not matching his body-type and personality."
During Scotch's cover blow up, it was emphasized that Scotch was a part of PSB but they never got his name. Which substantiates that it was possibly an internal leak. Hyoue Kuroda being the inside man, is the perfect missing link.
His call to Amuro showed trust deficit between the two. If he called as Amuro's NPA handler even then Amuro doesn't trust him with Kudo related info.
If he is Rum then his handling of Amuro could be an example of the Woodpecker strategy.
In file 1017, he is on the phone with Bourbon, and addresses him by his code name.
In the burning tent case, he tackled the culprit in a manner that might have risked injury to Ayumi.
In episodes 941 and 942, Kuroda is the only one who did not investigate all by himself. Wakita asked Agasa about Shinichi, and Rumi asked Haibara, so he must have asked Bourbon to make that investigation because, as Superintendent, he can't do it without raising suspicions about his identity as Rum.
Rum messaged Bourbon twice in the story, while in general Black Organization agents do use voice calls to interact with each other, which could be a hint that Rum's voice can be identified by Bourbon. As Kuroda contacts him regularly as his supposed PSB handler, it would be a headache for Kuroda if Bourbon identifies that his PSB handler and Rum are the same person.
The call to Komei in the snowy mountain case could be about creating a trust deficit between Amuro and Komei. Kuroda neither did use his original number nor he called Komei directly, so this could mean that Kuroda was in reality trying to suppress his identity as the caller in a technical way. As Morofushi already had Scotch's phone, which would mean that the former has a way to get the number of the one who called Scotch before he was killed.
Komei knew that his brother lost his life in an infiltration mission, and if someone sent his phone back to the police, that person must have known about Hiromitsu's mission as well, and so he deduced that 0, who wanted to be a police, was also a member of the PSB. That's why he didn't speak to Rei in the snowy mountain case, so Amuro could finish the operation Hiromitsu failed to complete.
Kuroda's position as a high-ranked member of the police is very convenient for the Black Organization, because he could erase any potential evidence against them. Kuroda is the only one with such authority between all three suspects.
Hints Hyoue Kuroda might not be Rum
He met Ai Haibara, who said he might have recognized her as Sherry and taken action against her, though Conan seemed skeptical of the idea and said they should still be careful.
He knows Bourbon works for the NPA, but has taken no action against him.
With his beard, he may have a hard time presenting himself as the feminine man.
Hyoue's current position in the Police force is a Managing Officer of the first division. The police detectives and inspectors of his division would definitely contacting with him for most of the time so if he were to left somewhere unnoticed, it would bring trouble and raise suspicions to himself. His huge body stature would definitely stand out in public, whether in disguise or not, if he was stalking Kogoro's movement.
He is aware of Conan being the real brains and actual "Sleeping Kogoro's Bag of Wisdom". Gin, however, is still suspicious of only Kogoro himself, not Conan.
He might also be a NOC, with the codename RUM.
Hints Hyoue Kuroda might be Bourbon's PSB handler
He talks to Bourbon on the phone as a superior.
He is aware of the Black Organization unlike most of the police. He is aware of the "ASACA RUM" code explaining his suspicion on Wakasa Rumi, and he is shown to be aware of Kudo Shinichi's connection with the Black Organization.
He is aware of both Bourbon's code name and NPA connection. If he was with the Black Organization, he would have taken action against the 'traitor' and if he was with the police knowing Bourbon's criminal connection but not knowing he is a NOC, he would have been investigating the 'criminal cop'.
In file 1030, he probably watched the crime scene video recorded by Kogoro offscreen and noticed Bourbon in it. In addition, he is also aware about Hiromitsu's connection with Bourbon as fellow officers so he contacted Taka'aki, who was aware about this and presumably ordered him not to strike a conversation with Bourbon since it would blow his cover as undercover officer.
Rumi Wakasa
Hints Rumi Wakasa might be Rum
She is blind in her right eye.
When she heard someone say he nearly had to get a prosthetic for his eye because someone hit him, she grew silently furious and clenched a shogi-shaped object in her back pocket.
Her silent fury seemed to trigger Haibara's Black Organization sense. Haibara picked up the scent even though she was facing away from Wakasa.
She can change the way she comes across to others in an instant, and thus might be able to pull off presenting herself differently at different times and match all three descriptions.
She is quite cunning and has excellent deduction skills like Conan.
She is quite cunning and has deduction skills that surpass Conan's, to the point she's had to drop hints to move him along in the cases they've been on together.
She took an interest in reports of Shinichi Kudo's return and looked up his name on the APTX-4869 victims list, which only agents of the Black Organization should have access to.
In one case, she knew a murder was going to occur and did nothing to stop it, despite her fighting abilities. Instead, she found it convenient. In another case, she seemed to egg the culprit on to stab Ayumi and even offered to help, though this could have been a calculated strategy to save Ayumi by taking control of the situation away from and distracting the culprit.
She mentions her favorite alcoholic beverage is whiskey, which seems to hint at the existence of a Black Organization agent codenamed Whiskey who she is interested in.
She keeps a shogi piece with her.
She seems to know how long it takes before a body starts to decompose.
She works as an assistant teacher at an elementary school and yet can afford to live alone in a fancy high-rise apartment in Tokyo, next door to a pro golfer who could be expected to afford to pay 100 million yen in damages.
In the anime, her voice actress is Fumi Hirano, who was also the voice of Lum Invader, where Lum is pronounced the same as Rum in Japanese.
In file 1051, she mentioned the words, Karasu being black, sly and a conspirator, hinting she might personally know Renya Karasuma.
She had a strange glare upon hearing Amuro/Bourbon was a private eye/detective. In other words, she began to suspect if Bourbon was NOC/spy that infiltrate the organisation.
Bourbon picked up the shogi piece that Rumi dropped by accident, which is a bishop and recalled that the murdered Kouji always kept it as a good luck charm, which was missing at the crime scene of the murder. It was thought by the police the murderer took it, which may implied Rumi was in fact Rum.
During the conclusion of the Hatoyama Farm case, Bourbon is lured into the farmhouse's cellar and beset there by an assailant concealed by the darkness. Still, the reader is able to discern Wakase's long hair and her glasses, including the obscured right lens symbolizing her blind eye.
Hints Rumi Wakasa might not be Rum
The descriptions of Rum were all of a man, but she is a woman.
Her name "Wakasa Rumi" seems too obvious.
Like Kuroda, she perhaps should have recognized Haibara as Sherry and acted against her. However, no action is taken against Haibara despite seeing her five days a week at school.
Despite the activation of her Black Organization sense, Haibara says she likes Wakasa.
The photo of the bodyguard Asaka, whose face was not shown, may mislead her as the main suspect because Kuroda and Wakita are both men while she is a woman.
Rum is a cautious person of whom nobody, not even inside the Black Organization, has an accurate description. If Rumi Wakasa was Rum, she wouldn't have allowed herself to be shown on the news, pro golfer case, with a name so close to the code "ASACA RUM". Members of the Black Organization, like Gin and Vodka, believe that he 'messed up' with the Haneda murder, so exposing herself on the news was a risk if she was really Rum.
She works as an elementary school teacher, meaning she cannot move around freely to outside of school during working hours and leaving work often will make her more suspicious. If she was Rum and were to move around freely, with or without disguise, there is a possibility that someone will remember her stalking around Mouri Detective Agency.
In a flashback, she seems to have been traumatized by Haneda's death. Rum was likely the murderer.
In Rumi's flashback, Kohji Haneda is seen dead and bleeding profusely from his mouth. The palm of Kohji's corpse was open. Which implies that Rumi is not the killer and neither took the piece after prying open Kohji's palm, she might have just picked it up after the real killer discarded it at the scene.
Kanenori Wakita
Hints Kanenori Wakita might be Rum
He wears a patch over his left eye which may conceal a prosthetic.
It seems he may be able to fit all three descriptions of Rum.
He appears to have an interest in Sleeping Kogoro, just like Gin. Hyoue and Wakasa personally have more interest in Conan rather than Kogoro.
On top of that, since it was Sleeping Kogoro that solved the murder behind Hotta Gaito, the occult detective who try to solve Haneda Kouji's murder case, it is only natural Rum's main focus and interest would be on Kogoro, not Conan because he want to stop Kogoro from investigating the truth behind Haneda Kouji's murder at all cost.
Rum in text messages has twice used the English phrase "Time is money," which can be translated into Japanese as "時は金なり", whose Romanization "Toki wa kane nari" is an anagram of "Wakita Kanenori".
In file 1008, he took an interest in reports of Shinichi Kudo's return and even tried to visit his house.
He can be deceptive.
As of now, he has yet to meet Ai Haibara and communicate with her directly in any cases, making him the primary suspect to have a different response compared to Hyoue and Wakasa when seeing Haibara later.
While Wakasa and Hyoue apparently have one of their eyes blind/prosthetic, both of them are on their right eye while the patch on Kanenori was on the left. Which is why he stands out among the other two suspects.
Like Bourbon whose workplace was just a floor under Mouri Detective Agency, Kanenori's workplace is one of Kogoro's favourite hangout places, which is just next door to the Mouri Detective Agency. This in turn allows Kanenori to move around freely and observe Kogoro's or his associates' movement much closely without disguising and raising any suspicions to almost anyone since public would believe he is a normal sushi seller that goes around delivering sushi to customers when being compared to Wakasa and Hyoue. Even if there is no customers that ordered sushi for delivery, he can easily fake an order to his own shop, thus allowing him to leave his shop either way, just like in file 1008 so that he can investigate Shinichi Kudo.
In file 1027, he is still wearing the eyepatch on his left eye despite saying that it will heal in his debut.
In file 1029, Kanenori completely snapped when the suspects started badmouthing Kogoro's actions after checking the victim's condition, something that Bourbon hinted afterwards that Rum is an impatient person.
In the Nagano snowy mountain case, when the four (Amuro, Conan, Kogoro, and Wakita) were on the train to Nagano, Wakita said that he hated betrayal, which seemingly meant he sensed that Amuro betrayed him by sending him fake information about Shinichi's death (after breaking into Shinichi's house, Amuro had a discussion with Shinichi's parents about hiding Shinichi's real identity). What's more interesting, after the whole Nagano Snowy Mountain case had been solved, Taka'aki Morofushi came to them and pretended he didn't know Amuro by shaking hands with Kogoro, asking him who these two men (Amuro and Wakita) were, although Amuro and Taka'aki had met before when Scotch was still alive. Presumably, Hyoue ordered Taka'aki to come (by calling him) to help Amuro by acting as a stranger to Amuro in front of Wakita so that Amuro's true identity as an undercover agent working for the NPA could be hidden, or even if Wakita was suspecting him of being so, this action could lead him to think otherwise, probably because Taka'aki believed if Wakita had suspected that Amuro was an NPA undercover agent, he would have thought Amuro had relationship with a person from the NPA such as Taka'aki, but they appeared to be strangers. Before leaving, Taka'aki didn't forget to mention a saying which was similar to "Time is money".
In his first appearance, he even mentioned that he is a drifter, which may hint that he never stays in one place very long, so that he can go where ever the Black Organization or Boss needs him to be to invesigate an important matter, and if necessary to take care of the problem, and then disappear quickly.
Also in his first episode, a customer asked what happened to the regular waiter, and he answered that he was in an accident, which may have had nothing to do with him getting this job, but if he is Rum, the accident was probably arranged, so that he can have this job to spy on the Mouri Detective agency, and in particular, Kogoro.
Hints Kanenori Wakita might not be Rum
He says his eye injury is only temporary and expects it to fully heal.
His interest in Kogoro and Shinichi may merely stem from his stated interest in solving mysteries.
He served highball to a customer, which contains whiskey, thus hinting he may be a Black Organization agent codenamed Whiskey rather than Rum.
He said the horse Pirate's Spirit is a weak horse. Pirate's spirit is also a type of rum. This hints he may not think very highly of Rum.
Kanenori's losing his patience against the suspects in file 1029 is only because he admired Kogoro as a detective.
He in his intro file said to Kogoro that he (Wakita) would be grateful to Kogoro if the latter takes him to murder case investigations. Which means that Wakita is looking for a person who is very likely to pop up at a murder scene, like a police officer. Which shouldn't be Rum's objective.
Wakita's eye issue can also be totally fake. Given the fact the said claimed pimple in the eye allows him to get out of the kitchen to get on with his intel gathering job, it means his claimed eye issue allows him the privilege.
In file 1057, Wakita hinted to Conan about the missing Shogi piece from the crime scene of Kohji case. If he is Rum, then digging up such an old and forgotten case has no benefit for him as further investigation would just mess up BO even more, but aligns perfectly with a detective who is trying to solve the case and just setting Conan on the right track.
Character inspiration
Gosho Aoyama was inspired by the fictional character Colonel Sebastian Moran in the Sherlock Holmes' series to create the Black Organization second-in-command. He was the Professor Moriarty's right hand man and "the second most dangerous man in London".
Gallery
Three black figures with fake eyes visualized by Conan (episode 793).
Rum's eyes in Conan's hallucination (movie 20 trailer).
Three black figures visualized by Haibara (movie 20).
Rum's eyes in Haibara's hallucination (movie 20).
Three black figures with fake eyes (episode 864).
Trivia
Lum Invader
His/her enemy role in the series is just like the second-in-command of the alien boss of the evil organization Jocker in the children's show Kamen Yaiba.[2]
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane byproducts, such as molasses or honeys, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. It's the liquor pirates often drink.
Gosho Aoyama, as a crossover joke, has introduced Lum Invader, the female protagonist from the manga Urusei Yatsura, as the Black Organization member Rum. He also showed Lum in a panel in file 906. Lum's name has a similar pronunciation to "Rum" because "R" and "L" sound the same in Japanese.
In a joke by the author, Rum has already appeared, taking that appearance at or before file 906. This is a reference to the cameo by Lum here.
In the hand-drawn poster by Gosho Aoyama for The Darkest Nightmare, Conan is riding a black horse on fire, that represents nightmare. The title of the movie confirmed the horse is Rum.
^Rum is voiced by an unknown voice actor/actress and was only given a computerized altered voice. The ending credits do not list a voice actor. The producers did this intentionally so that no one could look up what other characters that voice actor/actress might play.
Three black figures with fake eyes visualized by Conan (episode 793).
Rum's eyes in Conan's hallucination (movie 20 trailer).
Three black figures visualized by Haibara (movie 20).
Rum's eyes in Haibara's hallucination (movie 20).
Three black figures with fake eyes (episode 864).
