Rum

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Rum
Profile
Japanese name:	ラム (Ramu)
Age:	unknown
Gender:	unknown
Occupation:	Black Organization second-in-command
Status:	unknown
Statistics
First appearance:	unknown
Appearances:	Chapters: 33 Chapters: 3 Episodes: 24 Movies: 2 Openings: 3 Openings: 1
Actors
Japanese voice:	unknown (movie 20 & episode 942)

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

Judging from Subaru Okiya's descriptions, Rum appears to have high rank in the organization and is very close to the boss. Later on, Haibara remarks that Rum is second only to the boss of the Black Organization, suggesting that he/she is their second-in-command. While she had never met Rum herself, she had overheard other members give seemingly contradicting descriptions. Rum's identity, sex and mission are currently unknown.

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.

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+, Gosho Aoyama confirmed that Rum is one of the three.

Personality

Bourbon has told Conan that Rum is exceedingly impatient.

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.

  Show spoilers »

First description.

Second description.

Third description.

Appellations

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Gin	Rum	-
	Vermouth	Rum	Vermouth
	Hidemi Hondou	Rum	-
	Bourbon	Rum	Bourbon
	Curaçao	Rum	Curaçao

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Shuichi Akai	Rum	-
	Subaru Okiya	Rum	-
	Jodie Starling	Rum	-
	James Black	Rum	-

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Conan Edogawa	Rum	-
	Shinichi Kudo	Rum	Kudo Shinichi
	Ai Haibara	Rum	-
	Yusaku Kudo	Rum	-

Plot overview

Scarlet Epilogue (Manga: 898, Anime: 783)

Shuichi Akai (as Subaru Okiya) calls Jodie Starling and Andre Camel to the Kudos' house. He informs them that the undercover CIA agent Hidemi Hondou reported to him that a new organization member is on the move. As she only sent three letters "RUM", Akai deduces that it was done in a hurry. He recalls having heard the code name a few times when he was still infiltrating the organization, and notes that the member seems to be really close to the boss. Akai also tells them to report this back to James Black, while emphasizing that their new threat is someone even more important than Gin.

Scriptwriter Murder Case (Manga: 906-908, Anime: 792-793)

Conan asks Haibara about Rum. She tells him that she never met Rum in person but has heard of the number two-ranked agent in the Organization. His/her characteristics differ depending on who is describing him/her. Some say he/she is a strongly-built man, some say he/she looks feminine, and some say he/she is an old man. Others believe that all of these are just descriptions of body substitutes Rum uses. Haibara also says there is one characteristic that is the same for all stories about Rum: one of his/her eyes is damaged and has been replaced with an artificial eye.

They then encounter a murder case where all three suspects happen to have characteristics like Rum's: Kuramichi Habanaka a strong-built man, Ronpei Sakaba a feminine-looking man, and Denji Shibakaru an old man.

Department Store Stabbing Case (Manga: 939-941, Anime: 843-844)

While not directly related to Rum's plot, this case showed how several different people could see the same person and describe them as completely different. The culprit in this case flees down the stairs past various people of different heights and past objects of different colors, which resulted in the Detective Boys giving contradicting eye witness accounts. To further liken the situation to Rum, Genta even claims that he saw the number two written on the culprits clothes. In addition this case had a secondary plot point involving mascara.

Kohji Haneda's Death Case (Manga: 950, Anime: 862)

Photo of Asaka, the main suspect.

After Conan and Subaru solve the murder of Kunihisa Hiyama, they realize they can solve the dying message of Kohji's case. They decipher the meaning of the missing letters on the mirror of Kohji Haneda's room. Kohji's dying message from seventeen years ago was "ASACA RUM", so Rum might be involved in his death and the death of Amanda Hughes, a big fan of Koji's, along with the disappearance of Asaka, her bodyguard.

Since the dying message was "P T O N", the answer to it must contain all of the missing letters of "U MASCARA"
PUT ON MASCARA - P T ON = U MASCARA
U MASCARA - ASACA (for Asaka) = U M R
Which can be rearranged to make RUM
making the answer "ASACA RUM"

Soul Detective Murder Case (Manga: 951-953, Anime: 863-864)

Conan decides that the missing bodyguard Asaka is most likely Rum.

After the case was over Masumi speaks to Mary and says that the only information that Gaito Hotta, the soul detective, had was that he believed Asaka to be a woman. He was going to pretend that he had summoned Kohji's spirit and have it say that a woman was going to kill him. According to Masumi, the culprit said that someone saw Asaka holding "that small mirror".

Conan considers that if Asaka is Rum, then perhaps what Haibara said about being feminine refers to looking girly on the outside but strong like a man on the inside. If Rum had been a bodyguard seventeen years ago, then their age must be pretty high. Conan also ponders the possibility that Mary is Rum after having shrunken, being girly yet strong and older than she looks.

A song named ASACA (Manga: 954-957, Anime: 866-867)

Rokumichi Hado, a famous artist coming back from a seventeen year hiatus, announces a new song called "ASACA". Because of the spelling and the timing, Conan and Subaru go to the concert hall to investigate. There they encounter Bourbon and Vermouth in disguise as Azusa Enomoto who are trying to get in as well. Their presence suggests that the Black Organization decoded Kohji's dying message mirror and are investigating for the same reasons as Subaru and Conan. By the end of the case, both groups determine that the song being named "ASACA" is only a coincidence and not related to Rum or Kohji's murder.

Curse of the Nue (Manga: 958, Anime: 872)

Conan inwardly comments about Vermouth and Amuro's presence in the last case. He states that they must have been there because they know about the code "ASACA RUM" that was left by Kohji Haneda seventeen years ago. When Azusa mentions that she had seen two strangers approach the detective agency, Conan immediately assumes that it might have been Gin and Vodka, but it turns out to be Heiji and Kazuha instead.

Interchanged Betting Ticket Case (Manga: 975, Anime: 894)

Conan suspects Wakita is being Rum because of his left eye.

Burning Tent Murder Case (Manga: 987-989, Anime: 909-910)

Kuroda is shown looking at the Kohji Haneda case on his computer. He seems to make some kind of connection between the case and Rumi Wakasa. This story incidentally, also reveals that Rumi cannot see with her right eye, squarely making her a candidate for Rum's true identity.

The Field Trip to Kyoto (Manga: 1005, Anime: 941)

In the end of the case, the three Rum suspects, Rumi Wakasa, Kanenori Wakita, and Hyoue Kuroda are mentioned in the side notes. All three suspects appear in the same page, and seemingly focusing on Shinichi's involvement in the case.

Missing Maria Higashio Case (Manga: 1008, Anime: 942)

Rum sends an email to Bourbon, asking him to gather information about Shinichi, telling him to hurry up stating that "Time is money".

Black Bunny's Club Case Case (Manga: 1011, Anime: 953)

In the middle of the case, Rum sends another email to Bourbon, asking him to hurry up with the information about Shinichi.

Nagano Snowy Mountains Case (Manga: 1029, Anime: TBD)

Conan asks Amuro if he knows Rum. Amuro refuses to answer, but describes Rum as being "exceedingly impatient".

Trapped at Hatoyama Farm (Manga: 1051-1054, Anime: TBD)

Conan suspects Rumi is being Rum because she mentioned the words, Karasu being black, sly and a conspirator, hinting she might personally know Renya Karasuma.

Non-canon plot overview

The Darkest Nightmare (Movie: 20)

Rum contacting Vermouth.

Rum doesn't appear in this movie directly:

• Haibara visualized his/her three black figures as in file 906, and his/her artificial eye.
• 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.
• 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, that they weren't NOCs.
• Rum also orders them to retrieve Curaçao to verify if the message is authentic or not.
• 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 he must trust him/her the most.

Gin

It is unlikely that Rum and Gin have already worked together. Gin is the third-in-command in the Black Organization and the only supervisor in the general oversight division and he is always directly supervising things when it comes to confronting the organization's risks. Gin's ignoring of the case involving Rum seventeen years ago means that it is a threat to Rum and not to the organization.

Curaçao

Rum contacting Curaçao.

Curaçao is a member who works as Rum's right-hand agent, but has only appeared in movie 20. 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.

Suspects

  Show spoilers »

Hyoue Kuroda

Hints Hyoue Kuroda might be Rum

• 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."
• 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.
• 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.

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 Takaaki, who was aware about this and presumably ordered him not to strike a conversation with Bourbon since it will blown 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 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 chapter 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.

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 nobody, not even inside the Black Organization, has an accurate description of. 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, believes 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 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.

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 be having 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".

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 chapter 1029 is only because he admired Kogoro as a detective.

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.
• 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.

See also

• Characters
• Black Organization
• Rum (alcohol)