Akai's fake death technique

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At the end of Clash of Red and Black, Shuichi Akai faked his death with the help of Rena Mizunashi and Conan Edogawa.

The plan was to have Rena Mizunashi meet with Akai and pretend to shoot him. To make it look realistic for Gin and others involved, blank cartridges and blood packets with small detonators would be used. Akai would then pretend to die and fall down in the truck. While Rena set the detonator, Akai would place Rikumichi Kusuda's prepared body in his place and hide out of sight. The two would then leave.

As it happened, Jodie Starling used one of Conan's two cellphones with Rikumichi's fingerprints on it. She thought they were Akai's and when she went to validate the identity of the body with the police, the fingerprints matched with those of the corpse and Akai's death was then 'verified'.

Background

After the main events of Clash of Red and Black, Gin is suspicious of how easy it was to recover Rena Mizunashi from the FBI and that Shuichi Akai didn't make a strong move. Gin thinks Akai is still hiding something and that doubt is relayed to the boss, who plans a test of Kir's loyalty. Gin meets with Kir and conveys the boss's ultimatum: Kir must kill Akai in order to regain the Black Organization's trust. Akai and Kir meet at Raiha pass, where Rena shoots Akai twice and blows up the truck with his body inside; however, several abnormalities surrounding the circumstances of Akai's death invite the possibility that Akai faked his death with Conan and Mizunashi Rena's help.

Initial Planning

Rikumichi Kusuda, whose cadaver will be Akai's body double.

After the death of Black Organization agent Rikumichi Kusuda, Shuichi Akai and Conan went to talk to Rena Mizunashi after getting Eisuke Hondou to "wake her up". They spoke with her about sneaking her back into the Black Organization, received her promise to cooperate, and began to formulate a plan on how to smoothly send Rena into the Organization. At that point, Akai figured that the current plan to return her would seem suspiciously easy to the Black Organization, so they likely wouldn't trust Rena and therefore require her to prove her loyalty. Akai, who has experience in the Black Organization and knows how they think, guessed the requested task might be to kill him, so he decided to prepare appropriately, to be safe. This was the time frame when the plan for his death was most likely formulated.

At their disposal were two important articles: Rikumichi's body, for use as Akai's body double, and Conan's two identical phones, one of which has Rikumichi's fingerprints on it from the time when Conan performed a test to determine the identity of the BO operative in the hospital. Akai planned to later hold the phone, fingertips covered in glue, to later trick the FBI into thinking Rikumichi's fingerprints are Akai's.

Conan and Akai's preparations: Setting up the phone trick and Akai's body double

Akai takes one of Conan's cellphones with his right hand during an FBI strategy meeting where Jodie was present.

Akai covers his hands with glue so that he will not leave fingerprints. One clue to this matter is the fact that he at one point dropped a can of coffee, fingertips slippery. In the hospital during the FBI planning meeting, Akai takes Conan's phone (the one with Rikumichi's fingerprints) with his right hand. This hand is the one Rikumichi used to handle the phone, though Akai is left-handed and would naturally use that hand instead. Jodie remembers this later on, an important part to make matching the fingerprints viable as a means of identification. Meanwhile, either Conan or Akai steals Jodie's phone and causes it to malfunction, perhaps by dropping it in water like Conan did to Rikumichi's. This gives Conan the opportunity to loan Jodie the one with Rikumichi's fingerprints on it.
Sometime before Akai and Rena's meeting, Akai and Conan abscond with and prepare Rikumichi's body to look somewhat like Akai. The time frame for this could be the night before the strategy meeting after the fake death plan was devised or after Rena was returned to the Black Organization but before she called to meet with Akai.

Rena and Akai's preparations: Faking the gunshots for the camera

Before Rena is returned to the Black Organization, she and Akai discuss the timing and the location of the fake gunshots. They decide on the lung and forehead for reasons explained later. Akai prepares fake blood packets and small detonators, a small remote to detonate them with, and protectors for the skin. Rena obtains blank cartridges, likely from the FBI or Yukiko, and hides them on her person since she will be under watch and may be searched by the Black Organization. She might carry a few different calibers for different models of handguns.

Akai and Rena's meeting

With Akai, Kir, and Conan's prep work done, the FBI's plan to return Rena with the vans takes place and Rena successfully returns to the Black Organization. As predicted, she is soon tasked with killing Akai. Akai gets the expected call from Rena, and stops James Black from calling Jodie to prevent the other FBI from interfering with the plan. When Akai grabs James' hand to prevent him from dialing, James feels the glue, so Akai is forced to reveal the plan. Akai heads out after loading Rikumichi's body in the backseat of his truck. His model truck probably has a backseat/extended cab because it has rear side windows, though he also could have loaded Rikumichi's body onto the covered bed and moved the body to the backseat when he reached Raiha pass before meeting Kir. Meanwhile, Conan passes the phone with Rikumichi's fingerprints off to Jodie.

Akai keeps his right hand hidden in his pocket while Kir shoots him.

Blood packet placement and Akai's strange behavior while getting shot

When Rena goes to shoot Akai, Akai is forced to unnaturally keep his right hand in his pocket in order to push the detonator for the blood packets. The shot to the head was above Akai's hat line where a fake blood packet had been placed, and in order to bleed from his mouth, Akai could have bit open a small packet he was carrying inside his mouth or simply bit his tongue.

Disappearing blood trails indicate Akai's body was switched out

The blood trails on Akai's face disappear and the position of Akai's head changes after Kir prepares the bomb. This indicates Akai's body was switched.

After Rena shoots Akai and he falls down in the seat, Akai's face has a trail of blood running down it; later, after Rena had planted the bomb, the lower half of Akai's face and his body are visible, yet the blood trail is gone. Akai's head is also positioned differently. There is no reason for Rena to wipe the blood off Akai's face, nor is she shown doing so, direct proof that the body was somehow tampered with or switched by someone other than Kir. Furthermore, the body without the blood trail from the mouth has dimples at the corners of the mouth, something that Rikumichi has but Akai does not.

Rena uses psychological traps to trick Gin

Rena uses psychological traps to trick Gin into overlooking that she and Akai could have predicted enough details of the assassination plan to concoct an effective trick - she manipulates the conversation by suggesting possible courses of action and making requests that he would certainly reject. These rejected requests subconsciously make Gin falsely assume that Rena had wanted or planned on having things as she requested and had not anticipated his demands. The result is that Gin believes that he is in control and that Rena could not have plotted anything in advance.
This psychological trap was first used when Gin told Rena how she was going to kill Akai. Rena suggested alternate options such as having Gin and company surround and shoot Akai, and that she would like some extra time to prepare - both requests denied by Gin.

Additionally, Rena and Akai planned another trap for Gin with the placement of the gunshots. Rena and Akai decided to pick a fatal - but not quickly so - lung shot for the site of the first “shot”. Rena will then say “that’s good enough, he will die quickly anyway”, but Gin will be sure to object and order her to finish him in the head, for certainty. Rena will then deliver the coup de grâce that Gin ordered. Rena and Akai knew in advance that Gin would ask for a headshot in these circumstances because Gin would not want to leave anything up to chance. The trap is that they allowed Gin to pick the location because he would then believe that they could not have planned on his choosing the head.

Conveniently timed police arrive which allows Akai and Kir to avoid additional scrutiny

Kir moves to the front of Akai's truck to prepare the bomb, creating a gap of time where Gin and Vodka cannot see Akai's body with Kir's camera.

After Rena delivers the shots, she is interrupted by police heading her way. They were probably called on purpose to force Gin to order Kir to leave and not examine things more closely. Kir then walks over to the hood of Akai's truck to prepare the bomb which means the inside of the truck, and Akai then switches places with Rikumichi's body at this time. Kir places the bomb by the corpse and leaves, allowing Akai time to maneuver off-camera. He leaves his phone in Rikumichi's pocket, making sure that the right hand is protected in the pocket for later fingerprinting. The bomb destroys Rikumichi's face and obscures the self-inflicted powder burn.

The identities of the accomplices who would have timed the accident is unclear at this point; Agasa and Conan were tied up with the Shiranpuri case at the time, so someone else likely would have been involved. The FBI, other than James, who coincidentally found out at the last minute (and thus too late to help), were unaware that Akai faked his death, so it would have to be someone else whom Akai trusts. Yukiko, who was later shown to be working with Akai, is one possibility. It is also possible the assistants are the two subordinates whom Akai asked to follow Yukiko and the Detective Boys in the movie pre-screening murder case.

Conan checks his phone to see if the plan worked

After Jodie goes to the police and has them verify the fingerprints, she returns Conan's phone to him, and he checks it immediately. Given that the serial number is different, he now knows that the original phone was kept as evidence, meaning that the plan was a success. The reason for Conan's inspection could be that should something not work out properly, the plan would change so that Rena really would kill Akai; if Akai really had died, Rikumichi's fingerprints on the phone would not match the dead Akai's, and the police would return Conan's original phone. Conan is relieved to see that the phone had then been confiscated by the police, as Akai should then be alive and the Black Organization unaware of this fact. Later when Eisuke tells Conan "it sounds like there is a heavy atmosphere over the FBI, like someone died," Conan smiles to himself and thinks "that is OK", as he knows that it was fake.

Akai keeps the plan secret from his FBI comrades to fool the Black Organization

The reason the other FBI, including Jodie, were left out of the fake death plan is the same reason why the FBI were also left out of the plan to return Rena with the three vans. Conan, Akai, and Rena needed everyone to react realistically to Akai's death, given the Black Organization's past behaviors of ensuring that their targets were dead. This wound up being a good idea, as Vermouth checked out Jodie and James Black for this reason.

Bourbon's investigation

File: 894 - Scarlet Suspicion

It is revealed that the murder in this case was intended to be staged by Bourbon and Vermouth to gather information from the FBI. Vermouth, disguised as Jodie, receives information from Agent Camel that Rikumichi Kusuda committed suicide.
Bourbon finds this information interesting...

Bourbon's Theory

If Rikumichi Kusuda committed suicide, he would normally shoot himself in the head, and even if his body was to be burnt, the evidence would remain. Around the time the Black Organization lost contact with Rikumichi, another person was shot in the head and then burnt, and identification was found using a fingerprint match. Normally, a burnt corpse would have marred and unreadable fingerprints, but Vermouth claims that "he's that kind of guy," meaning that Shuichi Akai would shoot a shotgun with one hand, the other in his fireproof trouser pocket. Bourbon believes that Akai intended the hand to be found so that the fingerprints could be compared and his death could be confirmed, though Vermouth claims that the conversation in the video taken from Kir's hidden camera wasn't staged; as an actress, she believes that Akai's lines were not scripted. Though Bourbon's full reasoning has yet to be revealed, Bourbon is very aware that Conan plays a big role in this façade.

File: 895 - Scarlet Interrogation

Bourbon deduces that the trick to Akai's death was a simple body switch. The fingerprints on Conan's phone were indeed Rikumichi's, and the reason why Akai's fingerprints didn't show up on the phone was because he laced his fingertips with glue. This is also the reason why his hand slipped while holding his coffee. Bourbon also deduces that Kir was working with Akai to fake his death. He hypothesizes that Akai was given a device by Professor Agasa that squirts fake blood when a blank is fired, hence the blood on his head, and that it was anticipated that Gin would want a headshot as the coup de grace, thus allowing them to prepare the device beforehand. Bourbon realizes that Conan was behind this whole plan due to Akai's presumed last words. "Who would have thought that it would come to this" was really "who besides him would have thought it would come to this," with "him" being Conan.

Problems with this technique

The gunshot in Rikumichi’s body is through his temple, but when Akai “died”, he received a gunshot directly to his forehead from the center. Also, Rikumichi didn’t have a lung shot. The second shot could have been added post mortem, but the coroner might be able to tell even with the burning.

The second problem is using blanks at such close range. Although blanks lack the bullet part, the weapon will still discharge a cloud of hot gas called muzzle blast that may burn anything close. Also, any shrapnel in the gun or a bullet replacement such as a wad of paper could be propelled out at high enough speeds to be potentially lethal. “Crimped blanks” exist, which lack such a wad, but that would not prevent the muzzle blast. Gosho Aoyama has ignored the actual dangers of blanks for dramatic license; however, the presence of a burn scar on Scar Akai's right side of the face could suggest muzzle blasts were actually considered (and Bourbon may have designed the disguise with this idea in mind, therefore having muzzle blast burns in the places where he was shot.)

Additional hints that Akai faked his death

• The place name Raiha Pass, the location where Akai supposedly died, is derived from Reichenbach Falls, the location where Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty apparently fell to their deaths at the end of The Final Problem. It is later revealed that Sherlock survived the fall, but decided to fake his own death and go into hiding in order to protect himself from Moriarty's henchmen.

• The fake death contraption has been used previously in the manga. The first was used in the Black Pearl case by Sonoko Suzuki's mother and the magician Kazumi Sanada. The second time, Yukiko brought a special vest onto the Bell Tree Express for faking Shiho's death. The vest was bullet-proof, with a fake blood-releasing contraption to make realistic looking gunshots. Yukiko may have been able to supply similar theatrical components to Akai and Kir before the plan was put into action.

• Excluding Akai's apparent death, Gosho Aoyama has never killed off any character who has appeared in more than one case, much less a protagonist. The closest such situation was the flashback to the death of Jinpei Matsuda in "The Trembling Police Headquarters" arc, but it was stated that he died at the outset. Gosho Aoyama has had 650 chapters to set a precedent.

Gallery

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  Conan's satisfied expression after hearing that someone from the FBI has probably died from Eisuke, saying to himself "Yes, everything is OK".

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  Akai's hand in his pocket until the end

See also

• The last revision of this page while it was still a theory
• Okiya is Akai theory
• Scar Akai is Bourbon theory